FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 1, 2020
Contact: Will Pregman, [email protected], 702.752.0656
LAS VEGAS, NV – Today marks the 3rd anniversary of the 1 October mass shooting in Las Vegas that claimed 60 lives at the Route 91 music festival.
Annette Magnus, Executive Director of Battle Born Progress, said:
“For the third year, we mourn the lives lost from what is still the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. We also honor the survivors, including the over 800 people injured that night, whose lives were changed forever by this horrific act of domestic terrorism. Our Las Vegas community certainly changed as well, inspiring local leaders to fight, successfully, for gun violence prevention legislation and Nevada’s congressional delegation members, Congresswoman Dina Titus, Congresswoman Susie Lee, and Congressman Steven Horsford, to vote for federal legislation for universal background checks. But these efforts continue to be stymied by a highly motivated gun lobby that uses lackeys like Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell to block said legislation from moving forward and cutting deals to water down common sense laws at the local level.
While the country is beset by a deadly pandemic, we mustn’t forget the other under-addressed public health crisis of gun violence. Local counties must have the ability to pass laws that work for them by repealing state preemption laws. The recent string of shootings on the Las Vegas Strip in the past week are a harsh reminder of this necessity to pass laws to empower local lawmakers to keep firearms off the Strip. And with the tragic passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we must also consider what it means if Donald Trump is able to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in her place. The gun lobby has dutifully cheered on every extremist judicial pick from the President because they know the power to undo the progress we have made rests in our federal courts. We must be emboldened by this moment and the 1 October anniversary to stop this latest gun-lobby-approved nominee and fight for fair-minded judges who interpret our Constitution with today’s world in mind.”
This evening, Battle Born Progress will host a special edition of its Facebook Live event series Out in Front with Annette, in which Annette Magnus will sit down with Heather Sallan, a 1 October survivor to discuss how this event impacted her gun violence prevention activism.
WHEN: October 1, 2020 6:00PM
WHERE: Battle Born Progress’ Facebook Page
SPOKESPEOPLE ARE AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH
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