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Moms' event focuses on gun safety
Josey1
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Moms' event focuses on gun safety
By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter
ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Elizabeth Amos of Olympia participates in a protest yesterday against gun control near the Million Mom March event.
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Lisa Bond knows it can be awkward to ask new acquaintances about guns.
"It's difficult to say, 'Hi. I'm Nicole's mom. Do you have a gun?' " said Bond, president of the Washington State PTA and mother of a 15-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. "But it's something we have to talk about."
Bond says it's important for parents to get to know the families whose homes their children are visiting and to ask whether there are guns in those homes.
That's one of the main messages being pushed this year by Million Mom March, a national grass-roots organization dedicated to preventing gun deaths and injuries. The Seattle/King County chapter's event was held yesterday afternoon at Seattle Center House.
Dozens of volunteers and groups such as Seattle and King County Public Health and Students Against Violence Everywhere staffed booths with information on gun safety and control. The Total Experience Gospel Choir and Seattle Blend sang, and authorities including King County Sheriff Dave Reichert and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels were scheduled to speak.
As mayor, Nickels said, he's often spoken about getting back to basics. "There's nothing more basic than keeping our children safe," he said yesterday, urging the audience to make sure not to have unlocked and loaded guns where children can get them.
Bond suggested asking the families of children's friends about guns as part of a general getting-acquainted talk about rules at the home the child is visiting.
Outside the Center House, about 20 protesters, representing groups such as Tyranny Response Team, Gun Owners Action League and Washington Arms Collectors, held signs saying "Blame the Criminal, Not the Gun" and urging gun-safety education, not gun control.
"If you really want your kid to be safe from potential adverse effects of guns, educate them, don't make firearms forbidden fruit," said Jeff Stewart, founder of Washington State Tyranny Response Team, a grass-roots organization that fights gun-control laws.
Stewart also said his side was heartened by recent government actions.
Earlier this month, the Bush administration shifted a long-held federal stance on the right to bear arms. The Justice Department, in filing briefs in two cases the Supreme Court is considering for review, stated that the Second Amendment grants individuals the right to bear arms beyond the purpose of state militias.
Such moves by the administration are "a huge disappointment," said Renee Handler Klein, a spokeswoman with the local chapter of the Million Mom March. "It shows what we're all scared of."
Copyright c 2002 The Seattle Times Company
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134453115_millionmom12m.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter
ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Elizabeth Amos of Olympia participates in a protest yesterday against gun control near the Million Mom March event.
E-mail this article
Print this article
Search web archive
Lisa Bond knows it can be awkward to ask new acquaintances about guns.
"It's difficult to say, 'Hi. I'm Nicole's mom. Do you have a gun?' " said Bond, president of the Washington State PTA and mother of a 15-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. "But it's something we have to talk about."
Bond says it's important for parents to get to know the families whose homes their children are visiting and to ask whether there are guns in those homes.
That's one of the main messages being pushed this year by Million Mom March, a national grass-roots organization dedicated to preventing gun deaths and injuries. The Seattle/King County chapter's event was held yesterday afternoon at Seattle Center House.
Dozens of volunteers and groups such as Seattle and King County Public Health and Students Against Violence Everywhere staffed booths with information on gun safety and control. The Total Experience Gospel Choir and Seattle Blend sang, and authorities including King County Sheriff Dave Reichert and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels were scheduled to speak.
As mayor, Nickels said, he's often spoken about getting back to basics. "There's nothing more basic than keeping our children safe," he said yesterday, urging the audience to make sure not to have unlocked and loaded guns where children can get them.
Bond suggested asking the families of children's friends about guns as part of a general getting-acquainted talk about rules at the home the child is visiting.
Outside the Center House, about 20 protesters, representing groups such as Tyranny Response Team, Gun Owners Action League and Washington Arms Collectors, held signs saying "Blame the Criminal, Not the Gun" and urging gun-safety education, not gun control.
"If you really want your kid to be safe from potential adverse effects of guns, educate them, don't make firearms forbidden fruit," said Jeff Stewart, founder of Washington State Tyranny Response Team, a grass-roots organization that fights gun-control laws.
Stewart also said his side was heartened by recent government actions.
Earlier this month, the Bush administration shifted a long-held federal stance on the right to bear arms. The Justice Department, in filing briefs in two cases the Supreme Court is considering for review, stated that the Second Amendment grants individuals the right to bear arms beyond the purpose of state militias.
Such moves by the administration are "a huge disappointment," said Renee Handler Klein, a spokeswoman with the local chapter of the Million Mom March. "It shows what we're all scared of."
Copyright c 2002 The Seattle Times Company
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134453115_millionmom12m.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878