COLUMBUS, Ohio – The sister of a teacher slain during the school shooting in Newtown, Mass., called for stricter background checks for gun purchases and other measures during a rally in Columbus yesterday.
Carlee Soto, whose sister Victoria was killed in the Newtown massacre, joined Mayor Michael Coleman, lawmakers and civic leaders at Dodge Community Center as part of a 25-state bus tour called “No More Names: National Drive to Reduce Gun Violence.” The 100-day campaign is intended to pressure Congress to enact new gun laws.
The speakers voiced support for a measure crafted by Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) which called for extending background checks to commercial gun sales.
The measure went down to defeat in April when supporters failed to muster the 60 votes needed to head off a filibuster.
The group called on Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman to reconsider his “no” vote on that measure, but Portman had a message of his own.
“Both the families of the victims of the terrible tragedy in Newtown with whom I met and the authors of this legislation to expand background checks to more private sales have acknowledged that it would not have prevented the heartbreaking loss of life we saw in Newtown,” Portman said in a statement issued by his office prior to the rally.
Portman asked the group support two bills he has written which call for enforcing existing laws, strengthening background checks by improving mental health records, addressing the drug problem and gangs and supporting prisoner reentry programs.
Tuesday’s event was sponsored by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an organization founded in 2006 by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and to which Coleman belongs.