Originally appeared in Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 3, Summer 1999

May 25, 1999 -- a new national organization aimed at preventing gun death and injury has made its debut. The Bell Campaign bills itself as a grass-roots counterpoint to the NRA with education and advocacy as its primary goals Its founders are relatives of gunshot victims who chose as their symbol a bell, both to toll in the memory of those killed by guns and to peal as a call to action for those who would restrict the weapons. Mary Leigh Blek and her husband Charles will head the western regional office in Long Beach.Objectives include stringent licensing and registration of handguns, longer waiting periods, safety training, and a national ban on assault weapons and Saturday Night Specials. The Bell Campaign is funded by a three-year 4.3 million grant from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, a San Francisco-based philanthropy whose executive director is Andrew McGuire. McGuire's favorite cousin was killed by a gun when he was 12. McGuire was a founding member of MADD. Mary Blek had a ready retort to suggestions that the Bell Campaign blames guns for an overly violent society.

"We're not saying that guns cause the violence," she said, "What we are saying is that guns increase the lethalness of the violence so out of proportion that yesterday's fistfight is today's gun death. We have to address the issue of the easy access and availabilty of guns in our society." She spoke of the passion of the families of gun victims, "Things are going to change; we have reached the critical mass, we love our kids more than the gun lobby loves their guns."

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