Too many lives have been lost due to the easy availability of guns, even including automatic assault weapons. Citizens' attempts to curb the sale of these have been thwarted by the weapons industry and the limitless funds they control. We must not support them, in any way, in their callous and overwhelming greed for ever increasing profits.

As a mother of two young children in school I was devastated with the Sandy Hook actions. My oldest being the same age and grade of these beautiful babies that were torn away from their families hit me in such a way that I wanted to do something to make sure no family would ever have to experience such a horrible heartache ever again.

I am Claude Conkrite, I am a Volunteer Community Organizer for Move-On, Organizing for Action, the Progressive Democrats of America, And I am a long standing member of the SokaGakki. A Buddhist lay Organization dedicated to World Peace. As a Buddhist and a human being I have no choice.

The only way to produce change is to hurt the gun industry financially! This is a first step.

Back in 1985, a good friend was killed in a convenience store robbery 3 months after he graduated from the University of Iowa. Then 23-year-old Miya Rodolfo-Sioson was shot on Nov. 1, 1991, along with other faculty members at the University of Iowa, in a mass shooting. I do not object to hunters having guns, yet I think the types and numbers of weapons available to people is ridiculous. The right to bear arms does not include automatic/semiautomatic weapons, nor does it include nuclear arms, chemical arms, etc. Since the NRA has too much influence and ability to manipulate the corrupt system of government we live under, it is responsible to take action where one can.

We were all affected that morning, as we woke up to the news of the tragic shooting at that Sandy Hook elementary school. All parents, brothers and sisters can sympathize with the horrible pain that those parents must still feel. Yet, even in the wake of that tragedy, more gun laws have been passed loosening the restrictions on the sale or manufacture of guns than have been passed to strengthen these protections! The reason for this? The powerful gun lobby and the money they use to influence elections and lawmaking. After the shootings at Sandy Hook, many hedge funds, private equity firms, as well as city & state pension funds divested tens of millions of dollars from the gun industry. A year later, there are still funds and firms profiting from murder. If they divest, it'll weaken the gun industry's political power and clear the way for commonsense gun violence prevention laws. Please sign and lend your voice to the call for state pension funds to stop profiting from the gun industry!

I am Claude Conkrite, I am a Volunteer Community Organizer for Move-On, Organizing for Action, the Progressive Democrats of America, And I am a long standing member of the SokaGakki. A Buddhist lay Organization dedicated to World Peace. As a Buddhist and a human being I have no choice.

It has been one year since the atrocity at Newtown. Since then, some 1,000 people have lost their lives to guns in America every month. It's time for New York State to stop participating in this insanity.

Today is the one year anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting. Just this week we saw more gun violence in a school in Colorado. While there is support for common sense laws that would limit these gun deaths, and the hundreds that have occurred on a daily basis in our County, the gun manufacturing industry is doing all it can to bully lawmakers into backing down. As an Oregonian, I am asking that our Governor and state lawmakers make a decision to divest in the gun industry and keep the public pension investments away from an industry that is unwilling to recognize or take responsibility for the consequences of it's actions.

The remaing funds from the gun industry must be divested. On a daily basis, there continue to be a signifigant number of shootings in Detroit.

We must let our State officials know we do not want our state's pension fund to profit from weapons. Not when these weapons are being used to kill thousands of innocent people. Please take a stand with me and let our officials know what is happening is NOT okay with us and it must end NOW.

A day before the anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings, another school shooting occurred in Colorado, at Arapahoe High School. Schools in PA—like the one my daughter attends—are staging drills to teach pupils what to do in the case of a school shooting. What should be happening is gun control should be enacted in the wake of all of this—and the NRA's political power should be weakened.