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Iowa Shares
Member since 2005




Violence Prevention

Gun Violence

Statement about Gun Violence

Gun violence kills approximately 30,000 Americans each year, 187 of which are Iowans.  The Iowa Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility works to reduce gun violence by educating health professionals and the public about the risks of guns in the home, by advocating for laws to keep guns away from prohibited purchasers, by advocating for the regulation of guns as consumer products, and by working to prevent domestic violence.  Iowa PSR works with the statewide non-profit organization Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence to achieve these goals.

Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence ( IPGV ) has pointed out that we have a world-class armed insurgency right here at home.  
From IPSR News Vol. 4, No. !, August 2005. 

According to figures released by the Iraqi Interior Ministry and reported in the June 14 New York Times, 8,175 Iraqi civilians were killed by insurgents in the 10-month period that ended May 31. Most of the deaths were from suicide bombers and car bombs, with a smaller number by firearms.  By comparison, each year approximately 12,000 Americans are killed in gun homicides in the United States (an average of 1,000 a month or 33 a day).  This means that in the last ten months, more Americans were murdered by guns in the United States than Iraqi civilians were killed by insurgents using all means.  The fact is that we have a home grown American insurgency that is just as deadly as the Iraqi insurgency. The problem is, little is being done by federal and state lawmakers to combat the American insurgency.

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Progress on closing the Newspaper Loophole 
From IPSR News Vol. 4, No. !, August 2005.

In June 2005 the Iowans for Prevention of Prevention of Gun Violence (IPGV, www.ipgv.org) reported:  The Campaign to Close the Newspaper Loophole announced in June 2005 that at least three more Iowa newspapers have recently implemented policies to restrict firearms advertisements to licensed firearms dealers only.

Newspapers that have changed their policies include The Hawk Eye (Burlington), the Daily Iowegian (Centerville), and the Daily Sentinel (Le Mars).  These newspapers join the Telegraph Herald (Dubuque), Clinton Herald, Daily Register (Oelwein), Cedar Valley Daily Times (Vinton), and Daily Times Herald (Carroll) in bringing to eight the number of Iowa newspapers that do not accept firearms advertisements from unlicensed sellers.

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.50 Caliber Terror
From IPSR News Vol. 4, No. !, August 2005

Just some things to keep in mind next time you ride a commercial airliner. 

The .50 caliber sniper rifle currently in use by the U.S. military was originally designed to disable enemy aircraft parked on the ground with a single shot.  This weapon is easier for a  civilian in the U.S. to purchase than a handgun.  Armor piercing, explosive, and incendiary rounds are available for this low-tech weapon.

This rifle is accurate to 2,000 yards (over one mile).  "…a brochure…used in the past to market the .50-caliber to the military…boasts that the gun can hit a jet airplane or a helicopter in just the right spot, 'making it capable of destroying multi-million dollar aircraft with a single hit delivered to a vital area.' "  Visit www.50caliberterror.com/index2.html to learn more.

Violence Prevention

Most Recent Violence Prevention Activist Update

Tell your Senators to oppose S.659 in the Senate, which would grant the gun industry blanket immunity from civil lawsuits filed by cities and individuals seeking to recover the costs of gun violence.  The House has already passed HR 1036, the companion bill to S.659.  For more information on gun industry immunity legislation, visit www.justiceforgunvictims.org.

Tell your Senators to support S.1431 in the Senate, which would renew and strengthen the federal assault weapons ban.
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National Violent Deaths Reporting System (NVDRS)
From IPSR News Vol. 4, No. !, August 2005

NVDRS builds on the experience with traffic accident reporting data which resulted in safety measures that greatly reduced traffic deaths and injury over the last 30 years.  NVDRS was funded by congress in 2001 with pilot projects originally in six states, and has now been expanded to 16 states.  The amount of detailed data that is systematically collected in each case is impressive. 

The NVDRS initial data on suicides and homicides in the original six states was published this year.  Guns figure prominently in these statistics.  An article in the Journal of the American Medical Society reports on the new statistics and can be read in full at (http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/293/20/2464).  This kind of systematic data collection is badly needed to scientifically develop the most effective preventive strategies to minimize gun deaths in the U.S.

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