Moms Prepare To Take On The Gun Lobby

By Steve Bigham

Mom is coming and she’s saying, “Enough is enough.”

One year ago this week, 14 students and one teacher were killed during a massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The tragedy rocked the country as Americans struggled to come to grips with the fact that two schoolboys could actually shoot their classmates in cold blood.

For mothers, the Columbine shooting was especially troubling. So were the shootings in Jonesboro, Arkansas; Conyers, Georgia; and Springfield, Oregon where, in all cases, one mother’s child took the life of another’s.

On Mother’s Day, May 14, both men and women will converge on the Mall in Washington, DC, for the Million Mom March. The event is expected to draw people from across the country to demand “sensible” gun laws that protect children. Every day, according to a Million Mom March brochure, 12 children are killed by guns. The march is being called a crusade to end gun violence and to create safer communities for children.

Newtown resident Aggie Dalton remembers that fateful day in April when she turned on the news to learn that innocent youngsters had their lives taken away by two troubled boys. The mother of two children herself, Mrs Dalton concluded she needed to take action.

“The gun safety issue has been so prominent for me, especially since Columbine. I wanted to do something,” she said.

She wasn’t alone. Mothers all across the country were deciding they too must stand up for their children. Among them was Donna Dees-Thomases of New Jersey, who concluded enough was enough after seeing more children injured during a day care center shooting in Los Angeles last summer. She filed for a permit to march in Washington, DC, the following day and is credited with instigating the Million Mom March.

The mission of the march is to take on the “powerful, heavily financed cultural and political juggernaut” of the gun lobby. According to march organizers, these groups justify misuse of guns by making references to freedom, liberty, and the American Dream. Mothers are calling on Congress to enact common sense gun control legislation by Mother’s Day 2000. The march in Washington will either celebrate sensible legislation or protest bipartisan ineptitude.

 “We’re not in this for political reasons. It’s purely personal,” noted Mrs Dalton, who has worked tirelessly in recent months to recruit local people to join her in the march.

Mrs Dalton, now expecting her third child, will made the trip to Washington in mid-May. Normally, she would much rather be at home with her husband, Colm, and her two children on Mother’s Day. However, she believes the sacrifice will be well worth it.

“What better way to honor our kids than by doing this on the day they usually honor us,” she said. And she won’t be alone. Eight-year-old Ciara will join her 33-year-old mom on the trip while Colm will stay home with 18-month-old Molly.

“This march is just the beginning. We are going to pay attention to what happens after this. We are a voice to be reckoned with,” Mrs Dalton said.

No one is expecting one million mothers to actually show up at this march, but the figure is expected to surpass the 100,000-person mark.

Newtown’s Charlotte Warren is a grandmother who will head to Washington in the hopes that she too can make a difference.

“There are far too many guns available and the purchaser is not being screened properly. Guns are getting into the hands of the wrong people,” she said. “I came from a family of hunters, so I’m not opposed to all guns. I think people have to learn how to use them and guns need to be kept away from children.”

In 20 states, you can still carry a concealed weapon anyplace, including a church. The kids being killed in some of the high-profile school shootings are relatively minor in terms of statistics. It’s the guns that go off accidentally or fall into the wrong hands that kill most of the kids.

  Nancy Wartz and her 17-year-old daughter Jacquie, a senior at Newtown High School, will also make the journey to Washington next month. The fatal shooting of the six-year-old girl in Flint, Michigan, floored this Newtown family enough to want to take action.

“We need changes in government in order to stop our children from killing one another,” Mrs Wartz said. “Congress needs to stop hiding behind the Constitution. Some things need to be changed with the times.”