UNDATED, Jan 20: Pro-gun activists held “high noon” rallies across the United States to defend the right to own firearms they say is being threatened by President Barack Obama’s gun-control proposals.
The US debate over gun control erupted in mid-December after a man armed with an assault rifle killed 20 first-graders and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut – the deadliest of a string of US shooting sprees last year.
“We are law-abiding citizens, business owners, military, and we are not going to be responsible for other people’s criminal actions,” former Marine Damon Locke said to applause at a Florida rally he had helped organize.
Some in the crowd of about 1,000 in Brooksville, about an hour north of Tampa, hoisted signs that said “Stop the Gun Grabbers” and “Gun control isn’t about guns, it’s about control.”
Obama and gun control advocates have begun a push to reinstitute a US assault weapons ban following the Connecticut massacre. A number of other states have taken up gun legislation, and New York, with among the strictest gun control laws in the country, broadened its assault weapons ban on Tuesday.
Obama has also called for a ban on high-capacity magazines and more stringent background checks for gun purchasers.
Coinciding with the pro-gun rights rallies – which took place from Oregon to Connecticut – an accidental shooting at a North Carolina gun show wounded three people including a retired sheriff’s deputy.
It happened when an owner was taking a 12-gauge shotgun out of its case and the firearm accidentally discharged at the entrance to the show in Raleigh, causing non-life-threatening injuries, state officials said.
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(AGENCIES)
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