April 17, 2013
For More Information Contact:
Raymonde Charles
Press Secretary
202-662-3508 office
rcharles@childrensdefense.org
WASHINGTON, DC – Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, released the statement below on the failure of the Manchin-Toomey Amendment to Senate Bill 649, which would have helped keep children safe by keeping guns away from underage or dangerous persons:
“The failure of the background check plan in the Senate is a moral failure of great magnitude because of what it says of our values as a nation. Once again the safety of our children has been put on the back burner in service to the gun lobby. Do we truly value guns more than the lives of our children?
Between 1963 and 2010, an estimated 166,500 children and teens died from guns on American soil, while 52,820 U.S. soldiers were killed in action in the Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars combined. I join the parents of the children who were killed in Newtown and the parents of all the children and teens killed by gun violence in saying enough.
When will the number of children killed by guns in this country be enough to pass common sense gun safety laws?”