by Peter Mertz
DENVER, the United States, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The heavily-armed National Rifle Association (NRA) is feeling the heat with a new website warning to its members: "Our rights are under attack like never before."
As elected officials, the class of 2018, are flooding statehouses with bills that may change American gun laws forever, it's not another fundraising gimmick for the 148-year-old powerful political group and the enemy is real this time.
"Thirteen states have already passed a bill similar to ours and more are following," said newly-elected Colorado House member Tom Sullivan of a "red-flag" law he has sponsored to allow police to take firearms from people showing signs of violence.
After his son's murder at a nearby movie theater in 2012, Sullivan got into Colorado politics to fight for tighter gun regulations, winning a house seat in November from conservative, Republican NRA-supported Cole Wist.
Last year, Sullivan and his team knocked on thousands of doors in south Denver, asking residents of Colorado's conservative 37th District if they wanted responsible gun laws. And last November, they voted him in.
Political pundits agree that gun-control candidates were responsible for the U.S. House of Representatives shifting to Democratic control in 2018, which is a repudiation of NRA-backed, conservative politicians.
Mass shootings in the United States have tripled since 2011, previously occurring every 200 days, but since then, occurring every 64 days, according to a 2014 Harvard University study.
Statistics show that almost 40,000 Americans die from guns each year, and about 2 million have been killed since 1968, with a murder rate 25 times higher than any other country in the world, according to BBC and CBS reports.
Some 95 candidates endorsed by the Giffords Law Center, a pro-gun control research group, won seats in the powerful House in last year's pivotal mid-term election.
"The gun safety movement experienced a tectonic shift in 2018," Giffords reported, as record 27 state legislatures passed 67 new laws aimed at restricting access to guns.
"Everybody is just two-or-three people away from knowing someone murdered in a mass shooting," Sullivan told Xinhua, as each year thousands of grieving families and friends join the victims list.
"There's been a flood of new legislation," Robert Spitzer, a professor of political science at the State University of New York College told the Huffington Post last month of 2019's gun control barrage.
"Too many people have been affected by this," Sullivan told Xinhua on Wednesday. "It's getting closer and closer to home with parents, brothers, sisters, and others taking steps, and we know there's going to be a change."
Earlier this month, New York lawmakers put a "gun safety" bill on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk requiring the safe storage of all firearms in homes with a minor. Cuomo is expected to sign the bill any day.
In New Mexico, the NRA told members to call Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to reject a bill that would stop "the possession, purchase and ownership of a firearm" for people convicted of certain misdemeanor offenses.
In Connecticut, the state's supreme court "created a dangerous new exception to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a strong safeguard for our right to keep and bear arms," the NRA posted. The PLCCA, a 2005 Republican and NRA initiative, is a law that protects firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable when crimes are committed with their guns.
In Washington state, NRA leadership told its members to reject a bill that would allow police to confiscate guns and ammo from a domestic violence for a few days.
"Knowing someone who has been touched by gun violence, and that's where you get people's attention," Sullivan added, referring to the many grassroot organizations that have arisen from the ashes of mass murders.
