Mothers Push Fight Against Gun Violence

Every time Carol Ann Taylor speaks to community groups, congregations, lawmakers or reporters about gun violence, she hopes and prays her words may spare some other mother the pain of burying her child.

Taylor recounts in agonizing detail to all who will listen how her 17-year-old son, Willie Browning Brooks IV, was fatally shot in the back while walking a date home in 1993.

“I am a mother who is here to tell you that you don’t want to live this life I’m living,” she said. “Let’s do something before it happens to you.”

The Inglewood woman is a voice in a growing chorus of concerned people, primarily mothers, in a nationwide grass-roots effort known as the Million Mom March. The movement grew out of a shooting rampage that occurred three years ago this week in the west San Fernando Valley.

On Aug. 10, 1999, an avowed white supremacist seriously injured three children, a camp counselor and a secretary at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills and then fatally shot a Filipino letter carrier in Chatsworth.

In response to a word-of-mouth call by New Jersey mother Donna Dees-Thomases, about 750,000 people gathered on Mother’s Day 2000 on the National Mall in Washington to demonstrate their support for sensible gun laws. Since then, they have mobilized like-minded people in their hometowns in the war against gun violence.

On the front lines of this fledgling movement are inner-city and suburban moms who have joined forces for the sake of their children. Over coffee and cookies in more than 100 chapters around the country, they hatch plans to lobby lawmakers, raise money and persuade others to join them.

In the San Fernando Valley, Loren Lieb of Northridge and Donna Finkelstein of Chatsworth, whose children were seriously wounded in the attack at the Jewish center, are active in the 75-member local chapter.

“Before the shooting, my approach to gun control was, ‘Yes, it’s a problem, but what can I do about it? I live in a safe community.’ Then I found out that was very false thinking,” Lieb said. “The only way to change things was to become involved--or I could just sit back and let it happen again.”

Finkelstein discovered how steeped in the gun culture young people are when she returned to her job as a high school guidance counselor after the shooting.

“Some of the kids were asking me, ‘What type of gun did he use?’ and ‘What kind of bullets were they?’ I was stopped dead in my tracks,” she said. “They are completely familiar with guns. From that day forward, I knew that I had to do something.”

As president of the Valley chapter, Virginia Classick says it’s her job to keep members, especially those who have not been directly affected by gun violence, committed to what she considers a lifelong campaign.

“Social movements are like relationships: They are a lot easier to start than to maintain,” she said. “It takes a great deal of energy to keep moving forward, but we see ourselves as active participants in a process of social change.”

This summer, members from 25 California chapters are lobbying Gov. Gray Davis to sign legislation that would abolish the immunity from liability that firearms manufacturers have under state law. The proposal was prompted by a state Supreme Court ruling last August that held that gun makers cannot be held responsible for crimes in which their products are used.

Chapters in Michigan have organized strategy sessions to work for the defeat in Tuesday’s primary election of incumbent U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell, a Democrat, who they say has a dismal record on gun violence prevention. The group favors the other Democratic incumbent, Rep. Lynn Rivers, a vocal critic of the gun lobby. (The two Democrats must face each other in the primary because their representative areas were merged as a result of redistricting.)

Behind the scenes, the Million Mom March leadership brokered a deal in October to merge with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, founded by Sarah and James S. Brady, the former White House press secretary who was wounded in the attempted assassination of President Reagan in 1981.

“We have a large, grass-roots network, and Brady has excellent staffing and expertise in federal legislation,” said Mary Leigh Blek, national director of the Million Mom March. “It seemed like a marriage made in heaven.”

Says Brady Campaign spokeswoman Nancy Hwa: “The moms are an early warning system. They let us know when something is happening in their communities.”

Patterned to some extent after Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Million Mom March hopes to have the same effect on gun violence that MADD has had on drunk driving and underage drinking.

“Today, it’s not cool to keep feeding people drinks until they fall off the bar stool or say, ‘How did I get home last night from the bar?’ People are conscious of their behavior because of laws and penalties [MADD] pushed for,” said Shikha Hamilton, president of the Million Mom March Detroit chapter. “It took them 22 years to change the culture of Americans. This is not a sprint; this is a marathon.”

MADD National President Wendy J. Hamilton advises the Million Mom March to stay focused on its mission and prepare to stay in for the long haul.

“Even though our organization has worked hard for more than 20 years, the problem has not gone away. You have to keep at it,” she said.

The Million Mom March is not without critics, however.

“Million Mom March has lost credibility with women,” said Kelly Whitley, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Assn. “When they were formed, they were formed on the premise of promoting gun safety. The NRA promotes gun safety. We all agree on that. But in reality, the Million Mom March leadership misled and lost members when they embarked on a political agenda of gun bans and stringent gun-control measures that had nothing to do with safety.”

Blek is not deterred. “The gun lobby has been at this for 100 years; we are only three years out,” she said. “But what we have accomplished in three years is unbelievable.”

As the organization grows, Blek expects that it will face continued challenges from the gun lobby, increased public scrutiny and pressure to improve its organizational structure. The problems, she said, will be addressed at national conventions, regional workshops and chapter meetings.

Blek said there will be a concerted effort to push for racial and economic diversity within the movement.

The organization faced early criticism from inner-city African American and Latino mothers who said their white suburban counterparts did not get involved in gun violence prevention until weapons were turned on their children in predominantly white enclaves.

“It will take all of us working together to end gun violence,” Blek said. “We encourage moms to be inclusive and to keep the movement diverse because that is our strength.”

Taylor, the Inglewood mother, exemplifies that principle every time she meets with other moms in the mostly white West Los Angeles chapter.

“We must begin to look at each child like he or she belongs to us--no matter what color, what geographic area or economic background,” she said. “We must respond, because, if we don’t save our children, who will?”