George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight | Yoko Ono And Michael Moore Speak Out For Gun Control In America

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Yoko Ono And Michael Moore Speak Out For Gun Control In America

March 21, 2013

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With the all the debate about guns in America right now, Michael Moore and Yoko Ono are making their voices heard.

This Saturday, March 23, Moore's documentary 'Bowling for Columbine' turns 10 years old.

He announced on his website that he wants to "use 'Bowling for Columbine' to rally thousands - millions - to come together and kick off a massive spring action to get gun control laws passed."

He's asking people to get together on Saturday, rewatch the doc, and then join a discussion about how to get gun control laws passed in the U.S.

MoveOn.org is sponsoring a screening of the film in New York City with Moore, after which he'll host a live online chat, starting at 9 pm ET, to discuss next steps in pushing for new laws.

Ono is one of the people supporting Moore's initiative. Yesterday, on the 44th anniversary of her wedding to John Lennon, she tweeted this:

Together, let's bring back America, the green land of peace. twitter.com/yokoono/status...
— Yoko Ono (@yokoono) March 20, 2013

The image is of Lennon's blood-stained glasses - the ones he was wearing the night he was shot and killed. The same picture was used as the cover of Ono's 1981 album 'Season of Glass'.

In all, Ono tweeted the photo four times. In one Tweet she wrote about the "hollowing experience" of losing a loved one.

In another, she cites the statistic that "31,537 people are killed by guns in the USA every year," and writes "we are turning this beautiful country into a war zone."

As far as changes to gun laws in the U.S., the picture is mixed.

In Colorado, Governor John Hickenlooper signed new gun laws yesterday, eight months after the deadly shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora.

The new laws limit the size of ammunition magazines, and expand background checks for gun buyers, the BBC reports.

Under the new law, private and online gun sales will now be subject to background checks, and any magazine with more than 15 rounds will be banned in Colorado.

At the federal level, though, a gun control bill has been weakened as the Senate gave up on trying to include a ban on assault weapons in the legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the ban was dropped because of "the difficulties of passing such legislation through Congress," according to the Globe and Mail.

The bill will move forward without the assault weapon section. Reid says he wants to bring a bill to the Senate that will have enough support so it won't be blocked outright, preventing any debate on guns from taking place.

President Barack Obama Calls For The Biggest Gun Control Push In America In Decades

As America Comes To Grips With The Connecticut School Shooting, The Debate Over Gun Control Begins But Will Anything Change?