Site search
sponsored by
Home
News
Seven years after her beautiful and talented daughter, Laura, was gunned down by a mentally ill man, Amanda Wilcox maintains a vigil for firearm violence prevention.
She will do that at noon, April 16, at the Grass Valley Sierra College campus, accompanied by members of the Nevada County Chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The chapter will join the school's Associated Students and others across the country to stage a "Lie-In," during which people will lie down for three minutes to demonstrate the short time it takes to buy a gun in America.
"The Brady Campaign doesn't advocate banning guns," Wilcox said. "It's about keeping guns out of the hands of inappropriate or prohibited people," including domestic abusers and mentally ill individuals like Scott Thorpe.
Thorpe killed Laura Wilcox, Pearlie Mae Feldman and Mike Markle on Jan. 10, 2001, and shot two others in Nevada City and Grass Valley. One other woman was severely injured when she jumped from a two-story window to escape the rampage.
Amanda Wilcox has been working against gun violence ever since, but now she is going more public with the Lie-In. "It's to get people thinking about this," Wilcox said.
Suicide by firearm also will be discussed. In Nevada County, 33 people have taken their lives using a gun since the start of 2006, including 11 that year, 18 in 2007 and four so far this year, Deputy Coroner Cathy Valceschini said.
More than 80 percent of the confirmed suicides during the period occurred with a handgun. Valceschini said some of the coroner's cases are multiple drug ingestion and suspected suicides but can't be listed as such without a note or other evidence.
Gun violence incidents in the county since the start of 2006 include eight cases of brandishing a firearm, 12 assaults with a deadly weapon, two homicides and a self-defense killing by firearm, according to Capt. Ron Smith of the Sheriff's Office. The self-defense case involved a home invasion, in which the resident shot a man with a shotgun and saved his own life, Smith said.
The Lie-In is scheduled for April 16 to remember the 32 victims of the firearm killings last year on the same day as the Virginia Tech shootings and the 32 Americans killed by guns every day, according to the Brady Campaign.
The event doesn't bother Chuck Thornsberry, president of the Nevada County Sportsmen's Club, which is affiliated with the National Rifle Association and has a shooting range just outside Nevada City.
"It's America, and you can protest anything you want," Thornsberry said. "That's their right, and I wouldn't want to take it away from them.
"There were 20 million gun owners in the U.S. who didn't break a law yesterday, but when (a shooting) happens, especially at a school, everybody feels bad."
People wishing to be involved in the Lie-In, their supporters, and those wanting to be involved in a public discourse on gun violence should meet by the ponds at the campus, Wilcox said.
For more information, call Wilcox at 432-2171, or log onto the Brady Web sites at www.bradycampaign.org or www.bradycenter.org.
To contact Senior Staff Writer Dave Moller, e-mail dmoller@theunion.com, or call 477-4237.
She will do that at noon, April 16, at the Grass Valley Sierra College campus, accompanied by members of the Nevada County Chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The chapter will join the school's Associated Students and others across the country to stage a "Lie-In," during which people will lie down for three minutes to demonstrate the short time it takes to buy a gun in America.
"The Brady Campaign doesn't advocate banning guns," Wilcox said. "It's about keeping guns out of the hands of inappropriate or prohibited people," including domestic abusers and mentally ill individuals like Scott Thorpe.
Thorpe killed Laura Wilcox, Pearlie Mae Feldman and Mike Markle on Jan. 10, 2001, and shot two others in Nevada City and Grass Valley. One other woman was severely injured when she jumped from a two-story window to escape the rampage.
Amanda Wilcox has been working against gun violence ever since, but now she is going more public with the Lie-In. "It's to get people thinking about this," Wilcox said.
Suicide by firearm also will be discussed. In Nevada County, 33 people have taken their lives using a gun since the start of 2006, including 11 that year, 18 in 2007 and four so far this year, Deputy Coroner Cathy Valceschini said.
More than 80 percent of the confirmed suicides during the period occurred with a handgun. Valceschini said some of the coroner's cases are multiple drug ingestion and suspected suicides but can't be listed as such without a note or other evidence.
Gun violence incidents in the county since the start of 2006 include eight cases of brandishing a firearm, 12 assaults with a deadly weapon, two homicides and a self-defense killing by firearm, according to Capt. Ron Smith of the Sheriff's Office. The self-defense case involved a home invasion, in which the resident shot a man with a shotgun and saved his own life, Smith said.
The Lie-In is scheduled for April 16 to remember the 32 victims of the firearm killings last year on the same day as the Virginia Tech shootings and the 32 Americans killed by guns every day, according to the Brady Campaign.
The event doesn't bother Chuck Thornsberry, president of the Nevada County Sportsmen's Club, which is affiliated with the National Rifle Association and has a shooting range just outside Nevada City.
"It's America, and you can protest anything you want," Thornsberry said. "That's their right, and I wouldn't want to take it away from them.
"There were 20 million gun owners in the U.S. who didn't break a law yesterday, but when (a shooting) happens, especially at a school, everybody feels bad."
People wishing to be involved in the Lie-In, their supporters, and those wanting to be involved in a public discourse on gun violence should meet by the ponds at the campus, Wilcox said.
For more information, call Wilcox at 432-2171, or log onto the Brady Web sites at www.bradycampaign.org or www.bradycenter.org.
To contact Senior Staff Writer Dave Moller, e-mail dmoller@theunion.com, or call 477-4237.
