The National Gun Victims Action Council (NGVAC) is urging President Obama to declare a “state of emergency” and use subsequent emergency powers to institute gun controls rejected by Congress.

NGVAC cites the “public health epidemic” of gun violence as the justification for declaring an emergency.

NGVAC’s online petition lists numerous places where high-profile public shootings have occurred then asks for Obama’s intervention, saying, “The public space has become Russian roulette—every place is a potential risk. When the H191 flu [sic] hospitalized 20,000 people and killed 1,000, you used your power and declared a state of emergency.”

They assure Obama that guns sold at gun shows and via Internet sales pose a danger, and they argue that “gun-free zones” actually “repel” gun crime instead of attract it. Ironically, they made this claim without noticing how many of their high-profile public shooting locations—movie theaters, schools, colleges, military installations—are actually gun-free zones.

Nonetheless, NGVAC appeals to Obama to establish a “commission to address this [public health] epidemic” and suggests that “such commission… exclude members of the gun lobbies, who profit from the epidemic they’ve caused and do everything they can to keep it going.”

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.