April 24, 2014; International Business Times
When the NRA convenes for its annual three-day meeting in Indianapolis this weekend, they will be met by a bunch of mothers who are hoping to persuade them to back tougher gun laws. And apparently the women have an angle to play.
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“Their extremism should not go unanswered,” said Shannon Watts, co-founder of Moms Demand Action. “They are not just against background checks…They’re extremists in many ways and we want to make sure people understand that. We want to highlight that.”
Moms Demand Action is only eighteen months old, but it already has 150,000 volunteers across 50 states. It is also newly wed to Mayors Against Illegal Guns to form the Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety. In all, Everytown is estimated to have 1.5 million supporters, not to mention the $50 million contributed by Bloomberg to grow those ranks.
In Indiana, the mothers intend to bring the disarming tools of their trade: strollers and diaper bags. Shannon Watts, the co-founder of Moms Demand Action, commented, “We realized that when we have diaper bags and strollers in the hallways, legislators couldn’t really get through without talking to us and listening to us.”
They also bring straight talk on the most elemental level. “The gun lobby has preyed on the emotions of vocal minorities for decades,” Watts said. “They’ve made this vocal minority afraid that their guns are going to be taken away. Well, moms are afraid our children are going to be taken away. That’s the emotion we believe will win at the end of the day.”—Ruth McCambridge
