Talk to offer economic way to cut gun crime

Photo

Elliot Fineman, National Gun Victims Action Council president and CEO.

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

In the wake of recent high-profile tragedies involving firearms, ACTION will sponsor a talk by representatives of the National Gun Victims Action Council at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Reuben McMillan Public Library, 305 Wick Ave.

ACTION — Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods — is a faith-based community organizing group that focuses on a range of social issues, including crime prevention, education, immigration, and health and wellness.

The one-hour presentation, “An Economic Strategy to Reduce Gun Homicide and Violence in Our Community Now,” will lay out a strategy for changing America’s gun laws by harnessing the economic power of concerned citizens.

The presentation will be in the library’s conference room.

NGAC is a nonprofit national network of gun victims, survivors, their supporters, faith communities — including the National Council of Churches, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism — and others, who intend to leverage their power as consumers to reduce gun violence.

“NGAC will introduce a different kind of strategy,” said Elliot Fineman, NGAC president and CEO who will be co-presenter at the event.

“To get sane gun laws, we will harness the buying power of 9 million victims and their supporters, 5 million gun-assault survivors and their supporters, and many of the 100 million Americans who — as polls consistently show — want sane gun laws,” Fineman said.

Fineman, a Chicago resident who worked for many years as a strategic marketing adviser to Fortune 500 companies, was personally affected by gun violence. In 2006, his adult son was fatally shot in a San Diego restaurant by a paranoid schizophrenic who legally obtained the gun used in the shooting.

For further information, call Thomas Welsh, ACTION crime and safety organizer, at 330-792-7936.