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Quote by Joycelyn Elders

“Guns are far too accessible and too readily available. There are over 200 million guns in our society - and that's just the legal ones, the ones we know about. Every ten seconds, another gun is produced. And every fourteen minutes, some person in America dies from gun-inflicted action.”

Quote by Joycelyn Elders

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Joycelyn Elders
Joycelyn Elders

Joycelyn Elders is a prominent public health advocate and former Surgeon General of the United States. Born on August 13, 1933, she has dedicated her career to enhancing public health and advocating for social justice. Serving as the 15th Surgeon General from 1993 to 1994, Elders made substantial contributions to public health, particularly in the realms of HIV/AIDS prevention and tobacco control. more

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“I've pretty much always used my positions as a bully pulpit. What that means is strongly advocating for the things I feel are really important. Gun violence, to me, is the highest-priority public-health issue, and I have to make sure Congress is aware of it, the American people are aware of it, the president is aware of it, and that we all begin together to develop policies to exterminate the disease - the epidemic, really - of gun violence.”

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Author:Joycelyn Elders
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“I support a total ban on handgun ownership for anyone under eighteen. Uzis should be absolutely banned from entering this country. Automatic weapons of any kind should not be for sale in America. For that matter, toy Uzis should not be available for kids, either. There would be a minimum seven-day waiting period between applying for a gun permit and obtaining a gun.”

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Author:Joycelyn Elders
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“Nobody with a criminal record would ever be allowed to buy a gun. All assault weapons would be banned, completely. And everybody who still possesses a gun license would receive mandatory education and training by professionals on how to handle a gun. After all, I can't drive my car until I pass a test proving I know how to handle a car.”

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Author:Joycelyn Elders
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“What I can do is to go out and talk about the problems and solutions, make people aware of the scope of the problems, get them to become advocates for a turnaround, and convince them to develop an action plan, targeted to their community, to deal with young people. [They need to] find out what the kids want to do - dances, midnight-basketball leagues.”

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Author:Joycelyn Elders
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“We can begin to address the issue of guns by teaching our young people how to deal with situations in nonviolent ways. Someone said to me the other day, "What our adolescents need is not so much health care, but healthy caring," and I agree. Parents and churches need to provide that. Curricula in our schools [need to] provide that.”

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Author:Joycelyn Elders
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