Almost 15 years ago I was the parent of a first grader, a stay-at-home mom, glued to the media coverage of the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999. A few months later, the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center day care shooting happened. I will never forget the news photo of officers leading little ones across a parking lot to escape a madman who had fired 70 rounds in their building with an assault weapon, wounding several. I was heartsick but had no idea what to do about it.
Less than a year later, in March of 2000, our then 7-year-old daughter Sophie wrote to Rosie O’Donnell – a three-page highly decorated letter – and in May, appeared on Rosie’s national TV show talking about kids and guns. That action totally changed our family’s life. Totally.
Sophie did a series of St. Louis and national TV interviews – the cute local first-grader who had an opinion about saving kids’ lives. I was a retired airline crew member & knew absolutely nothing about firearm policy or state and federal gun laws. Absolutely nothing.
A week later Sophie held hands with Rosie O’Donnell as we marched together facing the Capitol along with Susan Sarandon, Andrew Cuomo, Tipper Gore and over 750,000 others from almost every state on the front lines of the historic Million Mom March in Washington D.C. We had traveled there with a delegation of 60 St. Louisians, organized through our synagogue, Congregation Temple Israel – each wearing t-shirts decorated with Sophie’s drawings. We marched, and then we met and talked with survivor families from throughout the country, including the youngest daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and we cried together. It was an overwhelming and extremely emotional experience. Rosie told us to go home and work in our states. So we did.
In January 2001, the Missouri legislature was attempting to pass a concealed weapons bill, even though voters had resoundingly defeated it in 1999. For the next three years I lobbied against this bad proposal with a fellow mom (now my colleague, State Rep. Jeanne Kirkton), driving to Jeff City almost weekly, working hand in hand with Gov. Bob Holden and his staff. Jeanne and I knew nothing about lobbying and very little about the legislative process. We quickly brushed up on our 7th grade civics. Two mothers up against the N.R.A. We learned really fast.
Sophie, still in grade school, hosted press conferences, lobbied in the Capitol with her friends and continued to work with the national Million Mom March. She was on a first name basis with Gov. Holden (a family story because her parents weren’t!) and met Sen. Ted Kennedy, who only wanted to talk with her, not her parents.
Sophie’s simple activism changed our whole family’s life, and taught us a great lesson: One voice can make a huge difference. You’ve heard the phrase often through ancient Jewish teachings – “If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” Congressman John Lewis, the renowned civil rights activist, altered it as: “If not us, then who? If not now, then when?”
Today, I serve in the MO legislature. I am going into my sixth year, and reducing gun violence is still my priority.
Many say they “support the 2nd amendment.” Actually they are saying they are gun owners and support hunters. I say, “I’m for saving lives.” I vow to uphold ALL of the Constitution, per the oath I took in the legislature to uphold both the state and federal constitutions.
The 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Few understand and know that until 2008 there was no right of an individual to keep and bear arms. However, the Heller Supreme Court decision in 2008 limits that right to possessing a firearm in your home for self-defense. Unfortunately NRA propaganda has led most people to believe that 2nd amendment rights are very broad and permit gun use freely and openly. The Supreme Court has never adopted that view. It’s up to us to make that known to others.
We know that more extreme gun bills will be filed in 2015. We know that Congress will keep doing nothing – not even allowing the Universal Background Check bill to come the floor for a vote even though over 85% of Americans support it. We also know that gun violence will increase, leaving our mayors frustrated and law enforcement challenged as more and more illegal guns flood our streets – while parents continue to bury their children way before their time.
WE CAN FIX THIS. WE CAN.
We MUST change the gun culture in our legislatures, and in Congress. We MUST take responsibility and own that WE – as voters and non-voters – allowed this culture to propagate.
We MUST step up our civic engagement and squash voter apathy.
We MUST accept that WE allowed the gun industry to flourish, profit and help multiply the source of illegal guns in your neighborhoods that you thought were safe – where anyone can obtain a gun online or at unregulated gun shows with hardly any questions.
WE MUST CARE that 48 American women are shot & killed by their current & former spouses & partners — every single month. We MUST care that law enforcement and prosecutors deal with gun crimes and gun felons on the street – way more than they should.
WE MUST CARE that the NRA buys legislators and those in Congress, particularly in Missouri where we can have NO campaign donation limits and few campaign ethics laws. We MUST care that Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt (the defacto head of the MO GOP party) has accepted over $1,608,517 from the gun lobby in exchange for blocking the up or down vote on universal background checks.
I care. I’m tired of crying. I’m tired of headlines and our cities in despair. So, I will continue to follow in Sophie’s footsteps. I will remain that “crazy anti-gun feminist lady” in the legislature. I’ll keep challenging & debating bill sponsors who turn their backs on victims and survivors – sponsors who answer only to the NRA .
I’ll file my common sense bills in January: universal background checks on all guns, allowing police to remove guns in domestic violence situations and new ones aimed to protect domestic and dating violence victims, preventing gun ownership by anyone subject to a protective restraining order. Because I don’t have much help in the Capitol, I’ll beg, cajole & backup my colleagues who dare to take on the GOP leadership and gun rights groups. And I’ll continue to field my share of hate mail and threatening Facebook/Twitter messages.
Apathy can no longer be tolerable. These are OUR communities, our children, our states. I implore you to not sit idly by. Keep in mind the words of our brand new, youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai:
“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”