An Update on Gun Policy & the Million Mom March - Pa. attorney general closes 'Florida loophole' on concealed-gun permits
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/pa-attorney-general-closes-florida-loophole-on-concealed-gun-permits-673956/
The 21st Century Motherhood Movement:
Mothers Speak Out on Why We Need to Change the World and How to Do It :
Introduction
The
Million Mom March began as the brainchild of Donna Dees-Thomases during the
summer of 1999. Influenced by the activism of Sarah Brady and galvanized by the
horror of the Granada Hills, California
gun massacre, Dees Thomases conceived a mission statement for what would become
a national movement to bring together mothers across the country to advocate
for and with victims of gun trauma for saner gun laws (Dees-Thomases, 2004). Estimates put the crowd that gathered to
protest gun violence and advocate for stricter gun control in Washington, D.C.
on Mother’s Day, May 14, 2000 somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 (DiQuinzio,
2005).
In
1999, other victims of gun trauma had launched another national campaign that
offered a grassroots solution to the American gun epidemic. The Bell Campaign,
modeled after Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), was created to prevent gun
death and injury, and to support victims of gun trauma. Organizers of the Million Mom March and the
Bell Campaign would join forces in 1999 under one umbrella as the Million Mom
March. After the Mother’s Day rally in May 2000, the Million Mom March merged
with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (DiQuinzio, 2005).
Philosophy, Purpose, and Mission
In
the United States,
gun control is a partisan issue that tends to divide along political lines. The
Republican Party supports the rights of gun owners as written according to the
Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. Members of the Democratic
Party tend to favor stringent gun control. In 2010, political newcomers in the form of
the Tea Party also became a force in the arena of gun rights discourse.
The
origins of America’s
longstanding love-hate relationship with firearms are rooted deeply in this
young nation’s colonial past. The right to bear arms was codified in the Second
Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Revolutionary era patriots
who would become the nation’s forefathers after independence had been won with
guns. An inherent part of the American
national identity is based on the historical foundation of hard won
independence from imperial tyranny and the perception that the firearms of
patriots carried the day.
Fast
forward over two centuries later to the United
States of the present day. Gun control has
become a polarizing political issue. Organizations such as the National Rifle
Association (NRA) influence national elections and public policy with strategic
financial infusions and well-organized media efforts to lobby for gun owners’
Second Amendment Rights while gun control advocacy groups such as the Brady
Campaign organize and lobby for stricter regulation and stronger government
oversight.
History
In
1999, victims of gun trauma launched a national campaign that offered a
grassroots solution to the American gun epidemic. The Bell Campaign, modeled
after Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), was created to prevent gun death
and injury, and to support victims of gun trauma. To support victims of gun
trauma, the Campaign offered information, education, and victim advocacy to
survivors of gun trauma. As chapters developed, members offered compassionate
support through self-help groups and resource referral.
In
recent years, political campaigns and politicians expanded the gun control versus
Second Amendment rhetoric in the wake of well-publicized shootings and proposed
ballot initiatives. Since 2006, a global
movement to limit the trafficking of small arms has gained impetus in the form
of the International Arms Trade Treaty via the United Nations. Under President Bush, the United
States cast the lone dissenting vote (172-1)
against a measure that would implement tracing and controls to limit the
illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. In 2009, under President Obama,
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced a reversal of United
States’ policy and issued a statement in support
of the treaty.
The treaty is
opposed by American gun rights advocacy groups such as the conservative U.S.
think tank the Heritage Foundation, which said that it would not restrict the
access of "dictators and terrorists" to arms but would be used to
reduce the ability of democracies such as Israel to defend their people (“U.S.
reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade,” 2009). The National Rifle Association,
one of the most influential gun rights advocacy organizations and a powerful
lobbying group in its own right, has also opposed the treaty. While the treaty
addresses the illicit global trade of small arms, it does not limit the ability
of sovereign nations to regulate gun ownership within its borders – as
opponents seem to fear.
In
Pennsylvania, gun control briefly
dominated the public discourse in the 2010 governor’s race after a shooting in Philadelphia
made national headlines. The shooter in the September 12, 2010 murder held a Florida
gun permit that had been obtained via an Internet application – an application
procedure that would be identified as the “Florida Loophole” by gun control
advocates.
In Florida, where gun
permitting is administered by the Commission on Agriculture and Consumer
Services, the gun rights issue was not addressed by either candidate for that
seat – even though crimes committed with Florida gun permits were
making headlines in Pennsylvania and other states. However, the Republican candidate and
ultimate victor in the race, Congressman Adam Putnam, had been endorsed by and
received a sizable campaign contribution from the NRA. Speaking as the current executive director of
Unified Sportsmen of Florida and past president of the NRA, Florida resident Marion
Hammer stated, “Adam’s solid pro-sportsmen, pro-Second Amendment, pro-freedom
record has earned him our endorsement and our gratitude. No other candidate in
this race has the background of dedicated legislative service that he has
demonstrated to the cause of freedom, the Second Amendment and protection of
constitutional rights” (“NRA and Unified Sportsmen of Florida Back Adam Putnam,”
2010). Putnam’s stated stance assured
Floridians he would be a staunch advocate on behalf of gun owners, “I have
always fought to protect the Second Amendment, the rights for self-defense and
have sponsored anti-crime legislation throughout my career. As
commissioner, one of the most important responsibilities is protecting
Floridians' right to carry, and I will ensure that eligible citizens who seek a
concealed weapons license receive the most efficient service possible” (“NRA
and Unified Sportsmen of Florida Back Adam Putnam,” 2010). Elected on the same ticket in 2010, Florida governor Rick
Scott also assured gun owners he would advocate for their interests, “As a member of the NRA and a hunter, I’m a strong
supporter of the Second Amendment. I will protect our fundamental right to keep
and bear arms” (“Our Second Amendment Rights, 2010).
While
Florida’s governor and the
Commissioner of Agriculture enjoy the support of the NRA and the hunters, a
number of Florida’s mayors have
joined a national coalition for gun control, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led
by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The policy gap between the stance
adopted by local leaders and the executive branch of the state is emblematic of
the American cultural and political divide on the gun issue. The Mayors’
coalition, like the Brady Campaign and the Million Mom March, advocates for
responsible gun ownership via government regulation,
“As
mayors, our highest responsibility is to enforce the law and to protect the people we serve. One of the most difficult
challenges we face in meeting this responsibility
is preventing criminals from illegally obtaining guns and using them. The issue of illegal guns is
not conservative or liberal; it is an issue of law and order -- and life or death. We support the Second Amendment and
the rights of citizens to own guns. We
recognize that the vast majority of gun dealers and gun owners carefully follow the law. “
(“About the Coalition,” 2009).
In
January 2011, gun control and gun rights would dominate the public discourse
and once again make headlines after the Tucson,
Arizona shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle
Giffords during a public appearance at a Safeway grocery store that left six
dead and injured 18 others.
The impetus for what would eventually become
the Million Mom March began in 1994, on the streets of New
York City, when Mary Leigh Blek’s son Matthew, a
nineteen-year-old college freshman was murdered on a street in Manhattan
(Kelly 216). Mary Leigh Blek, a
continent away in California, was
a former nurse and stay-at-home wife prior to her son’s death. Her son’s death motivated
her to work for sound public gun policy while she learned to adjust to life
without Matthew.
She
would later learn that the fifteen year old who killed her son Matt got the gun
via a street purchase. It was determined that the gun had been first purchased
in a Southern state with more lenient gun laws and then sold illegally out of a
car trunk in a New York City neighborhood. She wanted people to know, she said,
“If it happened to me, it could happen to you” (Blek, 2010, personal communication).
What
she said next, though, and what she has done in the sixteen years since her
son’s murder, however, has been remarkable.
Mary
Leigh explained her motivation to turn her personal tragedy into a national
movement to advocate on behalf of victims of gun violence, “The idea – the
death of your child – is so sudden, so senseless, you want to stand on rooftops
and shout so somebody else’s child gets to live.”
Blek,
supporting what she terms “common-sense gun laws”, rather than a total gun ban,
began to organize locally with other parents who had lost children to gun
violence (Kelly 216). Her organization, modeled
after Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), would eventually grow into the Bell
Campaign, as
an organization devoted to preventing gun death and injury, and to supporting
victims of gun trauma (Bell Campaign, Kelly 216). Early group activities included aiding
victims after the Columbine shootings in Colorado.
The group expanded its efforts nationwide in 1999 with the aid of a $4.3 million
grant from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.
She
first organized the Bell Campaign with the intent of organizing mothers against
gun violence. The organization would later join forces with Donna
Dees-Thomases’ Million Mom March group – Thomases’ own response to the mass
shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada
Hills, California.
Later,
the organizations would merge with the Brady Campaign. Today, Blek’s ongoing
advocacy goals and work include bringing accountability into gun ownership and
having a background check for all guns.
Activities of the Organization
One
of the most visible activities of the organization was the march organized in
2000 by Donna Dees Thomases. Thomases
founded the Million Mom March, and would eventually collaborate and combine
efforts with Blek, to bring people to Washington
DC as a highly visible political event with
the idea that concurrent marches would be held in cities across the
nation. After Blek agreed to the union,
the organization began to grow into a movement (Kelly 216) that would later
join forces with the Brady Campaign.
In
2004, the Million Mom March staged the “Halt the Assault Tour” to promote the
renewal of the Federal Ban on Assault Weapons (DiQuinzio, 2005). While the Million Mom March lost that battle
when Congress failed to renew the ban in the fall of 2004, the war against gun
violence would continue with the work of grassroots chapters and the national
advocacy efforts under the auspices of the Brady Campaign.
In
2010, the Million Mom March organized a national petition campaign against
Starbucks in response to a corporate policy that would allow gun rights
advocates to meet while exercising rights to the open-carry of firearms in the
coffee houses. The petition stated the following:
Dear
Starbucks,
“I demand that Starbucks stand
up for the safety of your customers and bar guns in your establishments. Guns don't belong in restaurants
and coffee shops where children and
families gather. It puts families and law enforcement at risk. Reverse your corporate decision”
(Brady
Campaign, 2010).
Efforts to protest Starbucks’
corporate support of open-carry laws included demonstrations by Million Mom
March chapter members at Starbucks’ locations in their local communities.
The
organization also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the first
Million Mom March at the Brady’s Center Gala at the National
Museum for Women in the Arts in May
2010.
Following the Roadmap Created by
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
The
mothers who coalesced to form what became the Million Mom March used a
grassroots strategy modeled after Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Mothers Against Drunk Driving is an
organization considered to be one of the greatest grassroots organizing
successes in the United States
and was also started by a grieving mother (MADD, 2005). In May 1980, Candy Lightner’s thirteen year
old daughter Cari was struck and killed in a hit and run accident by a drunk
driver while she was walking to a church carnival. In the aftermath of Cari’s
death, Candy Lightner and her friends would learn that there were no laws to
address drunk driving in California
and few legal avenues for victims to pursue in the court systems. MADD’s first office was located in Cari
Lightner’s old bedroom (MADD, 2005).
As
would happen twenty years later with the Bell Campaign and the Million Mom
March, a movement that began on one side of the nation developed a face and a
presence on the other side of the country when Cindy Lamb, the mother of Laura,
a 5 month old drunk driving victim, the nation’s youngest paraplegic, started a
MADD chapter in Maryland (MADD, 2005). In
October 1980, Candy Lightner and Cindy Lamb became the national faces for
Mothers Against Drunk Driving after speaking together at a press conference on
Capitol Hill.
By 1982,
MADD had grown to 100 chapters nationwide. That same year, with Executive Order
12358, President Ronald Reagan created the
Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving and charged it to undertake the
following mandates: (a) heighten public awareness of the seriousness of the
drunk driving problem; (b) persuade States and communities to attack the drunk
driving problem in a more organized and systematic manner, including plans to
eliminate bottlenecks in the arrest, trial and sentencing process that impair
the effectiveness of many drunk driving laws; (c) encourage State and local
officials and organizations to accept and use the latest techniques and methods
to solve the problem; and (d) generate public support for increased enforcement
of State and local drunk driving laws.
Later that year, Congress passed a federal bill
awarding highway funds to states with anti-drunk driving efforts. MADD’s
advocacy efforts would ultimately result in passage of the Uniform Drinking Age
Act in 1984 – legislation that would deny highway funds to states that did not
raise the drinking age to 21.
Since 1984, economists, policy analysts, and the American
Medical Association have expressed differing opinions on the effectiveness of
the series of laws that became known as MLDA21s (American Medical Association,
2010; Miron and Titelbaum, 2009; National Highway Traffic Safety Association,
1989). However, regardless of differing viewpoints about the association
between the reducing teen alcohol consumption and reductions in traffic
fatalities, the influence of MADD as an advocacy organization that changed how
an entire nation’s legal system and concomitantly, its culture, addresses the
issue of drunk driving, is undeniable.
Challenges: The Growth and Evolution
of the Million Mom March
Like
Mothers Against Drunk Driving two decades earlier, the organization that first
began as the Bell Campaign as a way to address grief and to advocate for the
victims of gun violence grew state by state and chapter by chapter. After the
Million Mom March in the United States’
capital with concurrent marches around the country, the organizers utilized
early forms of social networking via the Internet and late night conference
calls that fit into the busy schedules for working and stay-at-home mothers
around the nation.
Challenges
President
Clinton, in the wake of the 1994 midterm elections, may have best summed up the
challenges faced by the Million Mom March when he stated, “The NRA is the
reason the Republicans control the house” (Homsher, 2001). While the pendulum
of public opinion swings from election to election and the rhetoric varies
annually and state by state with each legislative session, the message of gun
control advocates has remained constant.
For the women who continue to organize and advocate under the auspices
of the Million Mom March, gun control continues to be “about reinforcing a norm
of responsible gun ownership and use” (Jacobs, 2002). The NRA, however, bills itself as, “as America's
foremost defender of Second Amendment rights” (“A Brief History of the NRA,
2011). The organization, with nearly
four million members, views attempts at government regulation as an
encroachment upon Second Amendment Rights and has a successful track record of
effectively mobilizing members on the state and national level.
Future Goals
Between 2007 and
2010, the United State Supreme Court heard cases related to gun rights and the
Second Amendment for the first time since 1939. Mary Leigh Blek (2010)
believes, along with Criminologist and Professor James Alan Fox, that the
Supreme Court's recent ruling on gun control is helpful and that with the
Court's "recognition that various government bodies maintain the authority
to regulate gun ownership and licensing" that reasonable public policy
related to gun control is within reach (personal communication).
In United States v. Miller, the
1939 decision “suggested that the right should be understood in connection with
service in a militia” (“Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Gun Control Case,
2007). In 2007, a case related to the Washington, D.C. handgun ban
appeared before the Court and the ban was struck down. Subsequently, the
McDonald v. Chicago ruling nullified “many city and state bans on handguns, but
left the door open for carefully worded legislation that restricts gun
ownership” by clarifying Second Amendment rights related to self defense for
non-militia members (“Supreme Court Rules on gun control, Second Amendment,”
2010).
The
organization’s continuing goals closely align with Professor Fox’s stance.
According to Blek, the following measures represent reasonable public policy
goals that the Supreme Court's majority might deem as legitimate. Most
importantly, she stated, these policies would help save precious lives by preventing
guns from falling into dangerous hands. In one year in the United
States, 30,896 people died from gun violence
and 78,622 people survived gun injuries (National
Center for Injury
Prevention and Control (NCIPC). Blek
(2010) asked, “What are we waiting for?”
The future goals of the Million Mom March as outlined by President Emeritus
Mary Leigh Blek:
- Repeal of federal restrictions on the wide-ranging
use of ATF trace data for identifying
patterns of illegal gun trafficking.
- Control of bulk sales of firearms.
- Require licensed firearms dealers to maintain
up-to-date records and to report all stolen or lost inventory.
- Require background checks on all gun purchases and
for registration of all guns and transfers of ownership.
Another current initiative of the
Million Mom March, in partnership with the Brady Campaign, is advocacy for
childproof guns:
POSITION: The Brady Campaign
supports making all newly manufactured or imported handguns “childproof.”
Childproof handguns can be designed so they can be fired only by their owner or
someone authorized by the owner.
(“Federal
Gun Laws: Childproof Handguns”, Brady Campaign, 2010)
According to the Brady Campaign,
childproof handguns would use existing technology to increase gun safety:
Gun manufacturers can make handguns childproof by integrating a
mechanical or biometric lock
into the handgun’s design. An internal mechanical lock works like the lock on a briefcase. The
owner punches in a code and the lock releases, allowing
the owner to open the briefcase. Biometric locks release when the fingerprint or hand-grip of the
owner/authorized individual is read by the lock’s scanner. Biometric locks are more secure than mechanical locks.
(“Childproof
Handguns”, Brady Campaign, 2010).
In the wake of the 2011 shooting in
Tucson, Arizona
that injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and left six dead, including a
nine year old girl, gun control proponents have called for tighter restrictions
on access to guns, including additional screening for mental health issues that
might render a person unfit for safe gun ownership.
The Motherhood Movement and The
Million Mom March:
The Importance of the
Organization
The
first Million Mom March was conceptualized as a campaign that would appeal to
mothers and used iconic imagery associated with motherhood in American culture
– linking, for example, the association between “mothers and apple pie” (
Sharpe, 2001). The Bell Campaign was
first conceptualized by a grieving mother who sought to make some sense out of
the senseless – in the case of Mary Leigh Blek, the shooting death of her son
Matt in 1994. The model for her
organization was based on another grassroots’ mother-focused organization,
Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The
Million Mom March was launched on the national stage at a major rally on
Mother’s Day 2000 in Washington, D.C.
Feminism
and motherhood have long had a tumultuous, controversial relationship (Kinser,
2010). To be a feminist or to embrace
feminism is to think in terms of women as advocates and as actors with a
certain amount of agency. The concept of motherhood is emotion-laden and
fraught with social expectations based on cultural frameworks (DiQuinzio,
2005). Women such as Mary Leigh Blek,
Donna Dees Thomases, and Sarah Brady all used their status as mothers as the
basis for their civic participation and the foundation for their activism. The
inherent idea on which the main premise of the Million Mom March is founded is
that these are mothers organizing against gun violence. DiQuinzio asserts that “women’s civic engagement is more
likely to be accepted when it is based on motherhood, since motherhood has long
been seen as women’s distinctive and most appropriate role” (227). However, as
noted by Kinzer, “feminists have also channeled a great of energy into
critiquing motherhood as a source of women’s oppression, isolation in the home,
and exclusion from paid work and career opportunities” (1).
The
role of the Million Mom March in the Motherhood Movement is multi-faceted. As
an organization that organized around and built upon the lessons learned from
other successful foremothers in grassroots organizing, the women of Mothers
Against Drunk Driving, the mothers who coalesced into the group that would
celebrate its 10th anniversary in May 2010 as the Million Mom March
have further cemented the power of mother-based advocacy efforts. As co-founder Mary Leigh Blek observed, the
Million Mom March provided a blueprint for grassroots organizing on the working
mother’s schedule. Conference calls were scheduled at night to accommodate the
hectic calendars of mothers with children. Local Million Mom March chapters
embraced the Internet and numerous web-based social and new media tools such as
Facebook to expand their grassroots’ organizing efforts.
Critics
of the Million Mom March have argued that the organization and others like it have
helped to create notions of “essential motherhood” and that their existence has
functionally served to characterize agency and activism that is
motherhood-based as further legitimating the motherhood identity or status as
“the basis for women’s moral authority” (DiQuinzio 236). Proponents of empowered motherhood advocate
for a broader conceptualization of the mothering experience that does not give
extra weight to the voices those women who mother in accordance with
traditional, patriarchal norms (Kinser, 2010).
Conclusion
The Million Mom March
helped to ring in the new century in May 2000 with a massive demonstration orchestrated
by an estimated 750,000 mothers in Washington, D.C. Ten years after its inception, the Million
Mom March organization continues to be a national voice advocating for sane gun
control laws in the United States.
The role of the Million Mom March in the 21st century Motherhood
Movement has been to serve as a model for grassroots organizing that has stood
the test of time while adapting to and embracing evolving technologies in order
to facilitate more effective advocacy.
Website
Works Cited
Blek, Mary Leigh. Personal Interview, Telephone. 30 June 2010.
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Childproof
Handguns.. Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 2011. Web.
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Million Mom March
supports common-sense gun controls. Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence,
2011. Web.
Brown, Peter H, and Daniel G. Abel. Outgunned: Up against
the Nra : the First Complete Insider Account of the Battle
Over Gun Control. New York:
Free Press, 2003. Print.
Dees-Thomases, Donna, Alison Hendrie, and Dianne Feinstein. Looking
for a Few Good Moms: How One Mother Rallied a Million Others against the Gun
Lobby. Emmaus, Pa:
Rodale, 2004. Print.
Derby, Kevin. NRA and Unified Sportsmen of Florida Back
Adam Putnam. Sunshine State
News, 2010. Web. 17
June 2010.
DiQuinzio, Patrice. “Love and Reason in the Public Sphere:
Maternalist Civic Engagement and the Dilemma of Difference.” Women and
Children First: Feminism, Rhetoric, and Public Policy. Ed. Meagher, Sharon
M. and DiQuinzio, Patrice. SUNY. 2005.
Goss, Kristin A. Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun
Control in America.
Princeton studies in American politics. Princeton:
Princeton University
Press, 2006. Print.
Greenhouse, Linda. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Gun Control Case. New
York Times, 2007. Web. 20
November 2007.
Homsher, Deborah. Women & Guns: Politics and the
Culture of Firearms in America.
Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe, 2001. Print.
Jacobs, James B. Can Gun Control Work? Studies in
crime and public policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.
Kelly, Caitlin. Blown Away: American Women and Guns. New
York: Pocket Books, 2004. Print.
Kinser, Amber. Motherhood and Feminism. California:
Seal Press, 2010. Print.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns. About the Coalition.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, 2010. Web.
Meagher, Sharon M, and Patrice DiQuinzio. Women and
Children First: Feminism, Rhetoric, and Public Policy. SUNY series in
gender theory. Albany: State
University of New
York Press, 2005. Print.
Mohammed, Arshad. U.S.
reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade. Reuters,
2009. Web. 14
October 2009.
National Rifle Association. A brief history of the NRA.
NRA, 2010. Web.
Remington, Tom. “Vote Adam Putnam, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture.” Maine
Hunting Today. October 27,
2010
Retrieved from <http://mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb/2010/10/27/vote-adam-putnam-florida-commissioner-of-agriculture/>.
Rice, Mary. Supreme Court Rules on gun control, Second Amendment.
Personal Money Store, 2010. Web. 28
June 2010.
Rick Scott, Republican,
for Governor. Our Second Amendment Rights. Rick Scott, Republican for
Governor, 2010. Web.
Spitzer, Robert J. The Politics of Gun Control. Chatham,
N.J: Chatham House, 1995. Print.
United Nations. INTERNATIONAL ARMS TRADE TREATY AIM OF DRAFT
RESOLUTION APPROVED BY DISARMAMENT COMMITTEE
Seven More Texts Recommended to General Assembly; Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Small Arms Among Issues Addressed. New
York: UN, 26 October 2006. Print.
Vizzard, William J. Shots in the Dark: The Policy,
Politics, and Symbolism of Gun Control. Lanham,
Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
2000. Print.
Wilson, Harry L.
Guns, Gun Control, and Elections: The Politics and Policy of Firearms. Lanham,
Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Print.
