Gun Purchases

Background Checks Bills For Gun Purchases Has Oregon Added To List Of States That Have Adopted Gun Safety Legislation

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The fight for basic background checks legislation for gun purchases in the states is a long, hard fought struggle, but Oregon has now been added to the list.

The following 17 states have adopted such legislation:

Connecticut
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Maryland
North Carolina
Michigan
Illinois
Iowa
Nebraska
Colorado
Washington State
California
Hawaii
Oregon

Notice that some of these states are Republican controlled states, including New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska, so there is some hope that more states will adopt such legislation over time.

But the power of the National Rifle Association is so great that we will see much gun violence continuing without any kind of accountability for many who buy guns at a gun show, privately, or online.

So the memory of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December 2012 still is an issue ignored by many who push the absolute right to guns, without efforts to restrict unstable people from gaining such weapons.

So the reality of at least 1,000 people on the average every month are killed by gun violence, whether by criminals, people familiar to the victims, mentally unstable people, suicide, or by pure accidents.

The Advancement Of The Progressive Agenda In 2013

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With the renewal and expansion of the coverage of the Violence Against Women Act, other important ideas are coming to the forefront of the progressive agenda:

Raising of the minimum wage, which 71 percent of the American people endorse, with a minimum of $9 an hour, although bills to raise it to $10 an hour have been introduced by some members of Congress. Realize that if one was to keep up with the cost of living since 1938, when the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed with a 25 cents an hour wage, the minimum wage would have to be at $13 an hour now to be the equivalent of 75 years ago.

Universal Background Checks for all gun purchases, which 88 percent of those polled want, including 85 percent of gun owning households.

More tax increases to reduce the deficit, a balanced approach with spending cuts that are fair and just, and do not hurt those on the bottom more than those on the top of the economic scale, with 76 percent agreeing with this.

Infrastructure Investments to repair and replace our deteriorating physical plant, and creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs. This is the best job creation policy, and is important for the nation’s economic growth and national security.

A pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, particularly for children brought to America and knowing nowhere else, and 70 percent agreeing with this in polls, and 60 percent of Republicans. This is the right thing to do, and is a way for Republicans to improve their image electorally.

Expansion of the Medicaid program, so that all Americans will be able to have accessible health care, a basic goal of human decency and compassion for those less fortunate.

Marriage equality, so that gay Americans no longer face discrimination legally in any aspect of their lives, including the right to have their marriages seen as legitimate.

Providing of Early Childhood Education, including universal Pre Kindergarten coverage, as a way to assist in the goal of early educational intervention, which will reap benefits in the future.

If all eight of these goals can be achieved, we will have major progressive victories in 2013!