IMPORTANT UPDATE: In December 2016, the Journal News revealed that County Executive Astorino will permit a new Gun Show to take place at Westchester County Center on January 21-22, 2017. In response, on January 9, the Westchester County Board of Legislators approved legislation to ban gun shows on all county property, by a vote of 9-8. County Executive Astorino is expected to veto the bill, and we expect to keep working to pass it, by obtaining enough votes to override the veto. We will deliver all signatures on this petition to the Westchester County Board of Legislators and County Executive Astorino in January 2017 before the vote. Please SIGN THIS PETITION and visit our Take Action center at www.PreventGunViolence.org to see how you can help. Thank you!! PERSONAL STATEMENT: As a Westchester resident, I am shocked and saddened by the recent horrific shooting of eight students and a faculty member at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. My friend Rachel was shot and killed by a 14-year-old playmate in 1982 when she was only 12 years old. Over 30,000 people die in the U.S. every year from gun violence, including suicide, homicide, and accidents.

My nephew's life was stolen and my family have suffered injustice at the hands of local police when called for a Wellness Check.

I was a Seattle firefighter and have had many personal experiences with gun violence including accidental shootings, suicides, and homicides. I never saw a shooting in my thirteen years as a firefighter that was in self defense.

I'm a proud gun-owning Arizonan, but I can't just stand by and watch innocent lives gunned down every few months. As a member of Congress who represents me, I ask you to hear my request to do something to prevent meaningless gun violence like that which hurt Former Rep. Gabrielle Gifford.

100% of the non-drug related mass shootings in Utah over the past 3 years were caused by disturbed fathers killing their own family and themselves (Mass Shooting Tracker). In countries with tighter restrictions on gun ownership, far fewer (2x - 20x) gun suicides and murder-suicides exist. Mental Health reform is the underlying issue, but restriction of access has an undeniable positive impact and saves lives while mental health reforms take shape.

I want our legislators to listen to the voters in Virginia, and not the Gun Lobby that makes large campaign donations. Children's lives are more valuable that. My grandchildren in Virginia schools matter more than dollars!

I am a 70+ year-old Montanan and a gun owner. My parents were both born in the state, and both owned guns. Neither of them obsessed about it; guns – rifles and handguns – were tools, to be respected and kept in good condition, not to be played with, not to be worshiped. My brother and I were taught to shoot and to handle guns safely and respectfully, as useful objects to be used appropriately. I know there are many, many Westerners – and others – who share my experience and my respect for guns. I am neither paranoid nor delusional; I know that no one wants to "take my guns away" and I know it would be impossible in any case. I know that if enough of us sane people express our opinion about guns and let our lawmakers hear us, they'll have to listen.

Why do we sit by week after week, disaster after disaster, waiting for somebody with the gumption to actually do something in the congress and senate to solve the problem of innocent children and adults being gunned down by mentally disturbed people who have access to guns that allow them to kill others at random without care or cause?

Sandy Hook should have been this country's wake up call. Sadly, it was not. The NRA and its allies in Congress decided that the lives of 20 murdered first graders were not as important to the future of this country as the unfettered right to own guns -- millions and millions of guns. More guns than any other country on earth. And now another day and another tragedy is upon us. When will our lawmakers say "Enough is enough." It is past time for Congress to do something about all of this carnage. No other peoples on earth send their children to school wondering if they will be shot by a madman before the class is over. Demand that Congress act NOW to pass gun legislation that will make us a safer, saner country.

No other advanced country has our rate of gun violence. We can stop this only if the people force our legislators to put gun control in place and take this issue seriously. Prayer and thoughts don't cut it. We need gun control.

There is the presence of a group carrying guns openly in Gallup Park in Ann Arbor drinking and partying next to the children's playground. In the past I have been affected by this issue - in a couple of near-fatal accidents with guns.

There has been a group carrying guns openly in Gallup Park in Ann Arbor drinking and partying next to the children's playground. In the past, I have been affected by this issue - in a couple of near fatal accidents with guns.