NEW YORK(TIP): A 63-year-old Indian American realtor, Raj Kohli with two artificial knees is on a mission yet again and this time to create awareness about the rising incidents of gun violence in the United States by riding a bicycle from New York to Washington, DC.
Raj Kohli kick-started the bicycle ride on the Memorial Day, near the Trump Tower, in New York.
He said in a press release that, while more than $7 trillion has been spent by the United States on fighting wars on foreign soil, the country has failed to curb the violence unfolding within its border.
More than 35,000 American die each year due to gun violence and the country has not been able to stop it, he said.
The ride is sponsored by Jersey Bents.
He posted the first video about the ride at 9:00 p.m. on May 13, 2018. “I already have 133,000 views, on my Facebook page: RajRideForPeace,” he says. “People are interested in supporting my cause. Most people. Some, obviously, are not. It is a democracy. We can disagree, hopefully not disagreeably.” Kohli is asking people to do the following:
- Boycott the NRA
- Repeal the 2nd Amendment
- Boycott Amazon and Walmart for one day, on May 28, Memorial Day, because they sell guns.
- Boycott mutual funds and retirement funds that have gun-related stocks in their portfolio.
“The idea is to reduce gun violence in the US and around the world, by reducing available guns,” Kohli explains. “The more guns we have, the more people will die. It’s a numbers game!
“I did a Peace Ride from 1981-1983, and last year again I rode my bike for Peace, from Tokyo to Hiroshima, in July/August 2017. There are 49 videos on the same Facebook page, ‘RajRideForPeace,’ relating to my Japan Peace Ride. For the Japan ride, a German bicycle company sponsored my bicycle,” he says.
Kohli lost 115 pounds after weight loss surgery, and proudly sports two artificial knees.