Conversation With Ann Reiss Lane : ‘We Cannot Live in These Communities Any Longer’
Question: As a police commissioner, what bothered you most about guns?
Answer: Hearing the anxiety expressed by police officers about the proliferation of guns used against them. I thought, if these tough police officers are afraid, imagine what it must be like for the rest of us? With 200 million guns out there already, if you were going to be safe by having a gun, America would be the safest country in the world. Instead, it’s among the most dangerous.
Q: Do you see a sea change in attitudes toward gun violence?
A: Absolutely, but not only in L.A. Across the country, people are sick to death of violence. They’re organizing in Seattle, Portland, Chicago and many other cities.
Q: How would L.A. be different if half of all guns were removed from streets, homes, schools and cars in this decade?
A: You would reduce the crime immeasurably because the people who used to burglarize a house, because of all the security devices, have changed their mode of operation and now attack in public. And that, in most cases, requires a gun. But more than that, children and families now have guns. You have to stop focusing on traditional criminals because we have tremendous violence in the home, school and workplace. We have teen-age suicides, husbands shooting wives, workers killing co-workers and children firing guns. All that would be dramatically reduced.
Q: Why is gun control emerging as a women’s issue?
A: Partly because there is a major campaign to sell guns to women. The gun manufacturers and National Rifle Assn. did a marketing study in the 1980s and found that the gun market was saturated among men. Women are the other half of the population and the best way to market to them is to play on their fears. That’s the most repellent part of the whole movement to sell guns to women. So we are fighting back.
Q: As society’s traditional nurturers, can women make a difference where lawmakers have failed to reduce gun proliferation?
A: We have one particularly good model in Mothers Against Drunk Driving, where women just plain got mad and said, “This has got to stop.” Women are persevering, caring, and they’re organized already in a multitude of groups. That’s why I’m having so much success in organizing Women Against Gun Violence, because this issue crosses every economic, racial and class line.
Q: What is the biggest myth about America’s love affair with guns?
A: That guns protect us, not kill us. Statistical evidence suggests that guns in your home are 43 times more likely to be used against a loved one, yourself or a friend than against an intruder. The gun sellers created the myth of shooting the intruder.
Q: What about the argument that criminals can always get a gun?
A: That doesn’t stop us from any campaign. We didn’t give up on the campaign against drunk driving simply because there will always be drunks on the road. Imagine if we had dropped the campaign against smoking because some people will always smoke. This is a 25-step process of trying to rid our communities of guns and violence.
Q: The women’s movement has often been criticized as too middle class. Will this new effort differ?
A: Yes. The interesting thing for me has been to find out how many community-based and ethnic organizations are out there. Early on, we found Drive-By Agony, parents who have lost their children, and a woman in Wilmington who founded Mothers and Men Against Gangs. There’s a new organization formed by the mother of the student killed at Reseda High, and one in Pasadena formed by the mothers of the children gunned down on Halloween. These are people of every color and background.
Q: Is there a consensus that women have won the big gender battles and it’s time to tackle larger societal issues like gun violence?
A: That was part of (feminist and author) Betty Friedan’s thought process in organizing Women Against Gun Violence’s first seminar last spring. She felt that women have to move beyond the victim stage. She sees women as the appropriate people to say, “We cannot live in these communities any longer.” We do not exclude men by any means, we need them, but the easiest course is to organize women.
Q: The media have begun identifying the gun manufacturer in stories about killing sprees. Is this part of your strategy?
A: We haven’t moved that far along, although several of the major cheap handgun manufacturers are right here in Southern California. There’s research under way on where guns used in crimes are produced. One strategy might be to call attention to manufacturers by bringing pictures of slain children as we march in front of a gun factory. Things like that will be decided at our conference.
Q: What does Women Against Gun Violence hope to accomplish in 1994?
A: To change the way people think about guns. To see them as killers rather than protectors, to focus on prevention. The public health movement and doctors and nurses see it as a major public health problem. We also want to never lose sight of the fact that there are social causes of gun violence that need to be addressed.