GUNS, SCHOOLS AND KIDS, Part 7
ORGANIZING FOR A GUN-FREE CHILDHOOD
Whether your passion is recruiting and
supporting candidates who will support gun control laws, or building common
cause in local communities for gun-free zones, or raising money for educational
efforts to create informed publics on behalf of reducing gun violence and its
causes, I hope you’ll look into these organizations and find one to support –
with participation even before dollars.
Or that you’ll start the conversation among your neighbors and
colleagues and children about what needs to be done in your own community – or
school – or home. And then do it.
Americans for Responsible
Solutions
Former
Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly, a celebrated
astronaut, founded Americans for Responsible Solutions to the rampant and
senseless gun violence in our country. ARS raises funds for candidates for
political office who are committed to regulating guns.
This
one is personal for me: My daughter and
I have shopped at the boutique linen store across the Tucson street from the
Safeway where Rep. Giffords was gunned down at a “meet and greet” with her constituents. A friend had at the last
minute canceled an appointment for that Saturday at the nail spa down the
street. Just a regular street, with
regular stores, on a sunny Arizona day. One of
Giffords’ staffers and 16 other
people were shot, six of whom, including a judge, died that day. Giffords herself suffered brain
injuries requiring long years of therapy and giving up her seat in Congress. The press made much of the shooter’s history
of mental illness and threatening demeanor; Arizona’s underfunding of mental
health services briefly made the news.
Calls for even tighter background checks and gun access were deemed to
be “politicizing the tragedy.”
Gabby
Giffords’ “district” is even bigger today as she and her husband Mark Kelly, the astronaut
who logged the most days on the space station, transformed their loss into a
new national organization to counter the NRA, call out a gun culture that
rejects all legislative limits, and take on the NRA’s influence over Congress
and state houses. ARS raises money to
recruit and promote candidates who will advocate what they term “responsible
solutions” to the gun culture. Check out
their website to see whom they are backing in your state and how you can get
involved to hold public officials’ feet to the fire once they’re elected.
Alliance for Gun Responsibility
Vision: A community safe from the devastating consequences of gun violence.
The Alliance for Gun Responsibility "works to end the gun violence crisis in our community and to promote a culture of gun ownership that balances rights with responsibilities. Through collaboration with experts, civic leaders, and citizens, we work to find evidenced-based solutions to the crisis of gun violence in our community. We create innovative policy, advocate for changes in laws, and promote community education to reduce gun violence."
Everytown for Gun Safety Action
"Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund seeks to improve our understanding of the causes of gun violence and the means to reduce it – by conducting groundbreaking original research, developing evidence-based policies, and communicating this knowledge in the courts and the court of public opinion."
Mayors
Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America have
joined to create Everytown for Gun Safety Action:
As
mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg invited the mayors of America’s cities to join him in organizing to answer the National Rifle
Association’s “report card” rating legislators on their stance (and votes) for
or against gun control by creating a “report card” to inform voters which of
their elected officials are working for gun control and gun safety. (My letter urging our mayor at the time to
not only join with Bloomberg, but take a lead in this organization given
Houston’s extraordinarily high incidence of gun violence, was answered with a
form letter saying essentially “thank you for sharing your opinion, but I’m a
gun owner……” After leaving office, the
same mayor in an interview about the shootings at the Orlando night club said
to the reporter that we have to do something about access to guns. Can that sensible position
be said out loud only when a politician is safely out of office?
Mayors
Against Illegal Guns asked candidates for House and Senate seats to fill out a
10-part questionnaire “clarifying their positions on issues like background
checks and [ammunition] magazine limits.”
Those already in office are rated
for their past statements and legislative votes on gun-related issues. Their responses, according to the
organization, are “used to rally voters for or against them accordingly.” We should follow their example in quizzing candidates about their stands on gun control and let them know their answers will affect our votes.
Sandy Hook Promise
Mission: Prevent gun-related deaths due to crime, suicide and accidental discharge so that no other parent experiences the senseless, horrific loss of their child.
The
parents of the children murdered by a man armed with his own personal arsenal
are the bravest people we could know.
The nation was sure that the killing of these little children would move
Congress to act immediately on gun control legislation that had for decades
been stopped by the NRA. The NRA was so
sure the deaths of these little children would prompt quick Congressional
action that they immediately went on the assault, claiming in truly twisted
press conferences that we needed more
guns, not fewer, and in the hands of more people: If the teachers had been armed, their logic
went, the children could have been saved. For once, the NRA seemed to lose its cool, to show fear – fear of losing control of the politicians it had
courted and cultivated, intimidated and bankrolled.
In
the end, the NRA won the legislative battles. But the parents of Sandy Hook
rose above that tyranny to persist in their legislative efforts, in their
advocacy for those “special provisions” we need to protect our kids. Just as they teach with such grace and
strength what it means to grieve the loss of a child, they teach through Sandy
Hook Promise, raising awareness, raising funds, raising voices. Their first actions were to create safe play spaces in honor of every child who died. On their children’s birthdays,
on the anniversary of the shooting, on normal days when children should feel
safe at school, the Sandy Hook parents remind the nation the work of making
childhood free of gun violence is not finished.
Moms Rising
"Moms as a collective voice on behalf of
children’s well-being – health, safety, education for children; and policies
supportive of families: family leave,
etc. Sharing information on legislation,
products, current issues; inviting collective advocacy through digital
communications."
And I'm issuing an open request for readers to suggest
others. Please comment and distribute widely!
To share your thoughts, click on the word “comments” below.
