Women for Peace Tells State Legislators: Don’t Lock Wisconsin into a Cycle of Violence!

Tuesday Morning Action Opposing Override of Concealed Carry Bill

www.madwomen.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 12 January 2004

Starting at 9:00 am on Tuesday, January 13, 2004, Madison Women for Peace will put pink gun locks on state legislators’ office doors in the Capitol Building to urge lawmakers not to “lock Wisconsin into a cycle of violence” by overriding the Governor’s veto of the concealed carry bill.

Women for Peace -- along with the WI Anti-Violence Effort, WI Coalition Against Domestic Violence, WI Council on Children and Families and WI Coalition Against Sexual Assault -- supports Governor Doyle’s veto of SB 214/ AB 444. This legislation would allow people to carry concealed weapons in Wisconsin. The State Senate may attempt to override the veto during this week’s extraordinary legislative session.

Starting at the office of Senator Dave Zien, the chief proponent of SB 214, this Tuesday morning at 9:00 am, Women for Peace will bring their message not to override the veto directly to lawmakers’ offices. The group is concerned that concealed carry would “lock Wisconsin into a cycle of violence,” with particularly negative consequences for women and children.

Women for Peace believes there are many issues the state legislature should work on that would make residents safer, including health care programs for the uninsured, better funding for all levels of education, and an increase in the state’s minimum wage.

“Instead of working on issues important to Wisconsin’s working people, like health care, education, and a living wage, however, some lawmakers are working to create a climate of fear and suggesting that guns will solve the problem,” said Women for Peace member Amy Fuelleman. “We wonder what Senator Zien and other concealed gun supporters are really concealing.”

Madison Women for Peace is the local affiliate of the Code Pink: Women for Peace national network. The local group formed in March 2003, with an International Women’s Day rally that brought hundreds of people out in a blizzard to encircle the State Capitol with pink rope, to express their opposition to military action against Iraq. More information can be found on their website, www.madwomen.org.

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