Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense finds neighborhood voices

Local group part of national campaign for common sense gun safety

By JAN WILLMS

Hamline-Midway resident Anne McFaul Reid (photo right by Jan Willms) had an important conversation with a friend a little over a year ago. The conversation was about gun violence. That friend had lived in Norway and said that gun safety there had never been on her mind. But she realized when she moved back to the United States, she was worrying about gun safety all the time.

After that conversation, Reid, who lives about three blocks away from University Ave., was standing in her house one day with the windows open. She heard a gunshot.

“At the time, I had a 14-year-old boy who has a skateboard and skateboards around the neighborhood,” Reid said. “My hair stood on end, and I decided to get involved with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. You don’t know who has that gun and who’s shooting it off, and we’re about keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people. It’s rather simple.”

Moms Demand Action was started by Shannon Watts after the mass shooting of children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, in December 2012. “She grew that organization so big that now we have a chapter in every state,” Reid noted.

Along with Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Everytown Survivor Network, Moms Demand Action is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country with more than three million supporters and more than 100,000 donors.

Reid said she attended meetings where participants made cards for families who had lost someone to gun violence. “That was a very moving time,” she recalled. “We just gathered and made beautiful things and shared love.”

She said there is also a campaign about children’s safety around guns. “Common sense things, like making sure your guns are locked up. There are people trained who go to communities and have these parties, and all the moms in the neighborhood come and just open up the conversation about it. People realize ‘Oh, yeah, I really do need to check. My husband has a gun. I need to make sure it’s safely locked somewhere.’ It’s amazing how when it’s not in your awareness, you just don’t think about some of these things.”

Reid said she does not have the answer as to why the United States has so many gun-related deaths compared to other countries, other than accessibility. “You want a gun; you can so easily get one. I’m not an expert at knowing what’s happening in other countries, but knowing what my friend said, you just couldn’t have one unless it was for hunting or things of that nature.”

Reid made it clear that Moms Demand Action is an advocate for the second amendment. “We have no plans of taking away anybody’s gun,” she affirmed. “It’s just really about gun safety and making sure guns don’t get in the hands of dangerous people. That’s the bottom line, and by going at it from a legislative point of view, it’s similar to the drinking age.”

“We know that teenagers still are going to drink alcohol, but we as adults know it’s dangerous for them,’ she continued. “It causes a number of car accidents, so why not make it a little harder to get it by raising the drinking age, which we did, and it helps. So we go at it with that same philosophy.”

Photo left: Moms Demand Action members gather in St. Paul. The members of the group are not opposed to owning guns, but focus instead on what they feel is common sense gun safety. (Photo submitted)

Reid said she knows that people are still going to get guns, but why not make it a little more difficult by closing those three main loopholes: the gun show loophole, buying guns online and buying guns through private sales.

“That is the basic premise Moms Demand Action is going on, in hopes that we are not creating more of a divide but creating more of a community, about keeping us all safe,” she said.

In line with this mission, in March, the Minnesota Chapter of Moms Demand Action joined law enforcement, faith leaders, county attorneys and some gun owners in applauding the introduction of new gun safety legislation. The bill, introduced by Minnesota Sen. Ron Latz and Rep. Dan Schoen, would require background checks on all gun sales—including online sales and sales at gun shows—closing existing loopholes in Minnesota law that make it easy for felons, domestic abusers, and people suffering from dangerous mental illnesses to get guns.

Photo left: Moms Demand Action member speaks at recent political caucus. (Photo submitted)

The legislation faces an uphill battle, however, with Republican legislators stating they would refuse to hear it in the public safety committee or see it enacted into law. Reid said the organization has not received a lot of pushback for its efforts. “Many people are in full support of this,” she said. Reid said statistics showed that 82% of Minnesotans support background checks on all gun sales. “That’s a real clear majority,” she said, “so I think it’s more about getting our representatives to hear us so it’ll get done.”

Reid added that on Lobby Day, Apr. 28, she plans to go to the Capitol. “I’m going to wear my Moms Demand Action t-shirt and stand up for gun safety,” she noted. “This is just about keeping our families safe in our communities.”

Reid said she believes gun safety will be a factor in this year’s presidential election. “With our bigger voices, we can let our candidates know we are serious, and we want this done,” she said. “It’s not a real hard thing to do.”

Reid explained that Moms Demand Action is open to fathers as well as moms, and to everyone who has an interest in promoting gun safety. She said the most challenging part, for her, is to continue with the momentum. “It’s real easy to go on with your daily life and just not check your emails and not make calls to legislators. You just have to keep taking little steps; they don’t have to be giant steps,” she said.

Reid said that 88 people every day are killed by gun violence. She is aware of the refrain that guns don’t kill people; people do. “Let’s just check our people then, before we give them a gun.”