Louisiana has highest rate of gun-related homicides in nation

The Fix Gun Checks Tour came to the Lavin-Bernick Center Quad yesterday as part of a campaign by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of more than 550 mayors, including New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, to draw attention to the problems in the gun background check system in the United States.

The Fix Gun Checks Tour set up a table across from McAlister Auditorium for students to sign its petition. The group included Lance Orchid, a 1996 Tulane Law School alumnus and advance director for the Fix Gun Checks Campaign, and spokesperson Omar Samaha, whose sister Reema was killed in the 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre. The tour participants have shared their message with people across the country since the tour began Feb. 16.

“Right now, there are millions of names of prohibited purchasers missing from the gun background check system,” Samaha said. “We’re trying to populate the database with all the names, and we’re trying to require background checks on all gun sales across the country in order to prevent future tragedies.”

The group also parked a mobile billboard on Drill Road, which showed the number of Americans murdered with guns since the Jan. 8 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Gifford (D-Ariz.) in Tuscon, Ariz. The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, used an illegally-purchased gun. Mayors Against Illegal Guns launched the tour in response to the Tuscon shooting.

“Jared should have been prohibited from buying a gun,” Orchid said. “He was not allowed to go into the army because he was an admitted drug user. They should have put his name into the background check system, but they didn’t. So he basically fell through the cracks.”

Samaha said the tour visited Louisiana because the state has the highest rate of gun-related homicides in the United States. He said they came to New Orleans because Mayor Mitch Landrieu is a member of the coalition and because of the city’s high rate of gun violence.

“New Orleans has a higher rate of gun violence, more so than most places in the country, and we would love to support the effort to curb gun violence here,” Samaha said. “What we’re doing would help in that effort.”

Orchid said he wanted to stop at Tulane to share the message with his alma mater.

“Tulane is just a special place to me,” Orchid said. “I’m happy to be back here to talk to students on campus about these issues.”

Sophomore Stefan Brozovich said he signed the petition yesterday.

“I thought it was shocking how felons and people who are mentally unstable are supposed to be on a list that prevents them from purchasing a gun, and not all of them are on that list,” Brozovich said.

Samaha spoke yesterday with Tulane public health professor Peter Scharf, who studied the Virginia Tech Massacre.

“He knows everything there is to know about the issue,” Samaha said. “He understands that the background check system is broken, and he supports it being fixed, which was great to hear from him.”

Samaha said that people should not mislabel the Fix Gun Checks Tour as being anti-gun. He said that many people in the organization own guns themselves.

“We actually are trying to protect second amendment rights but at the same time, keep guns out of the hands of prohibited purchasers,” Samaha said. “About 86 percent of Americans across the board support what we’re doing, around 79 percent of gun-owners support what we’re doing, and about 69 percent of National Rifle Association members support what we’re doing.”

Samaha said that it’s a universal issue and that the initiative has received a lot of support.

“It’s a middle ground that we’ve seen many people from all walks of life, whether they’re gun owners or not,” Samaha said. “No one is immune to gun violence.”