The Rev. Al Sharpton is calling for a national gun violence awareness month following several mass shootings earlier this year.
Sharpton is suggesting that June could serve as the month for the initiative, according to The New York Daily News.
{mosads}Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) are backing Sharpton by promising a Congressional resolution authorizing his measure, according to the Monday report.
“It is imperative as we continue to deal with…violence by police, that we also reiterate [how] we must deal with violence to one another,” Sharpton said at his National Action Network in Harlem.
“It will be as substantive as we make it,” the reverend added, also noting that he would launch “peace summits” nationwide if the idea is implemented.
Jeffries and Rangel’s endorsement follows a similar measure in their home state, The New York Daily News said Monday.
Rangel argued that the proposed initiative would help pave the way for stricter gun control laws in the future.
“[It would] shatter the myth that guns don’t kill people,” he said of Sharpton’s proposed firearms violence awareness month.
“It’s a moral issue,” Rangel continued. “This is a national security question. We’re talking about saving the lives and minds of a great nation.”
Film director Spike Lee, The New York Daily News added, is also chipping in by leading a march against gun violence Tuesday.
“We’re not having a celebration,” he said of the premiere of his film “Chi-Raq.” “We’re going to march.”
Gun violence is once again in the national consciousness following a mass shooting in Colorado Springs, Colo., last week.
Robert Dear, the alleged attacker, killed three people and wounded nine others after opening fire on a Planned Parenthood facility there.
President Obama has repeatedly bemoaned Congressional inaction on firearms regulation during his time in office. He sharply criticized lawmakers last weekend for engineering an environment where mass shootings seem commonplace.
“If we truly care about this — if we’re going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them,” he said in a statement Nov. 28.
“This is not normal,” Obama added. “We can’t let it become normal. Period — enough is enough.”
Police described Dear’s alleged weapon as a “long firearm” following his arrest last weekend. They have not determined whether the gun was obtained legally.