Five years after Sandy Hook, U.S. gun-control advocates switch strategy

By Barbara Goldberg

 

Armoured One Tactical Consultant Michael Poland shoots one of the company's security glass for an active shooter preparedness drill demonstration at Rockland Indoor Shooting, in Pearl River, New York, U.S., December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five years after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school, advocates who are disappointed with the failure of efforts to limit access to firearms are changing their strategy.

 

Instead of pressuring lawmakers to push new gun-control measures through the U.S. Congress, volunteers from groups including Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America are now running for office themselves.

 

Nine of 13 volunteers trained by the group ran for office this year and won seats, ranging from New Hampshire state representative to city council member in West University Place, Texas. Fourteen more have already declared their intentions to run for office in 2018, seeking seats in Congress, state legislatures and local government, all running as Democrats.

 

"The reality is that the work doesn't really start in Congress. That's where it ends," said Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts, who launched her group the day after the Dec. 14, 2012, massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

 

The group began training candidates after more than 400 of its 70,000 members said they were interested in running for office.

 

"This is a marathon, not a sprint," Watts said. "It's going to take several election cycles."

 

Even if the next class of candidates, none of whom are running as Republicans, succeed in winning office, they will face an uphill battle against a U.S. Congress controlled by Republicans, who are staunch defenders of the right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

 

Sandy Hook was at the time the second-deadliest mass shooting carried out by a single gunman in U.S. history. It sparked new energy among gun-control advocates who pushed for fresh federal restrictions on assault weapons, which were blocked by Republican lawmakers and the powerful National Rifle Association lobby.

 

A steady stream of mass shootings have continued across the United States since Sandy Hook, including two deadlier incidents - the slaughter of 58 people at a Las Vegas concert in October and the massacre of 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub last year.

 

GRASSROOTS EFFORT

 

Mark Barden, whose son Daniel was among the 20 first graders killed in Newtown, said he believes grass roots achievements like the new crop of gun-control candidates will lead to more action.

 

"This is a social change and it takes time," Barden said. "What's happening in Congress notwithstanding, the change is going to come from the ground up."

 

In the meantime, Barden is working with Sandy Hook Promise, a volunteer effort to prevent more shooting deaths. The group said that in the past two years it has trained 2.5 million students and families to recognise signs of potential gun violence and report them to authorities.

 

Social change, whether it is about drunk driving or recycling, comes from the ground up, said Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan died in the Sandy Hook attack.

 

"In the gun violence prevention movement, we have not focused on getting behavioural change. It's all been focused on top-down and that is not how you get change," she said.

 

Next year's class of gun-control candidates includes a mother whose son was shot dead and a bystander paralysed from the middle of her chest down in a drive-by shooting.

 

Lara Kennedy is running for U.S. House of Representatives in the Texas district that encompasses Austin and north of San Antonio.

 

Lucy McBath, whose only child Jordan Davis was shot dead after an argument over music while parked in Florida in 2012, is running for the Georgia House of Representatives.

 

In Arizona, Jennifer Longdon, who was wounded in a random 2004 shooting, also is seeking to become a state representative. In Arkansas, Adrienne Kvello is challenging incumbent Republican state Representative Charlie Collins, who sponsored bills to put more guns on college campuses, in courthouses and the state capitol.

 

Amber Gustafson, a gun-owning Moms Demand Action volunteer and life-long Republican who switched her party registration to Democrat last year, said if she wins her race for an Iowa state Senate seat, she will fight for gun safety laws aimed at preventing another Sandy Hook.

 

"I'm pro people defending their Second Amendment rights. But I also believe and know that good laws can really protect lives," Gustafson said.

 

(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-14

Fantastic idea.  Best of luck!!!

Good. Somehow need to change focus from 2nd amendment to public health issue. CDC is forbidden from studying gun violence as a health issue. We lose as many to guns in a few years as we did in all of Vietnam war. I know 330 million "combat troops" are larger US population than number of soldiers, but numbers still appalling. I have no problem with sane responsible people owning guns, btw

NRA rules, so best of luck, it will be needed for any meaningful change with the clout that this organisation carries.

Guns kill people ....and  guns in the hands of the mentally disturbed kill many people. All guns purchased in any venue need to be put into a massive database and tracked.  Private citizens do not need Semi Automatic war weapons and these must be outlawed. In addition, a normal citizen  should never be allowed to purchase an unlimited number of firearms and ammunition.

 

The second amendment to the Constitution was written at a time when people used firearms for hunting and self protection as America was mostly a frontier country. Even so, when one entered a town- the custom waas to check firearms with the local constabulary, Now, we have open carry and people can brandish their weapons anywhere- total madness.

22 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Fantastic idea.  Best of luck!!!

It actually IS a fantastic idea.  Voters can rule them out right from the start!  Republicans will save a fortune on campaign spending.  Gun control Nazis persist in the delusion that total gun prohibition, which is of course their true agenda - not merely "background checks; not merely "registration"; not merely "assault weapons" - is some kind of grass-roots, silent majority thing.  They no longer fool anybody - except apparently themselves.  EVERY time they start their shrieking again, gun sales go through the roof!  One day not so far off people will be able to "print" them, not to mention the parts & pieces that can turn a less-lethal weapon into a more lethal one, and so if you think guns aren't controlled or traceable enough now...