Moms Demand Action event in Old Town

Theresa Rose

The Mom’s Demand Action event was held on Sunday, June 3rd in Old Town Square, Fort Collins. A subdivision of the Everytown for Gun Safety movement, the goal was to ask city council to ban assault weapons in Fort Collins. In an interview with organizer Laura Bard, the Wear Orange Weekend was the first big public event staged by the local organization and was well attended although no politicians showed up. City Council member, Gerry Horak, read the mayor’s proclamation of June 4th as national Gun Violence Day.

The Wear Orange movement and National Gun Violence Awareness were inspired by Project Orange Tree, a campaign begun by a group of friends to commemorate their murdered friend, Hadiya Pendleton. In June, 2015, participants were asked to stand up, speak out and Wear Orange to honor not only Hadiya’s life but the lives of all victims and survivors of gun violence.

The Mom’s Demand Action branch of Everytown for Gun Safety was inspired after the Sandy Hook shooting and grew very quickly as a grass roots movement. The organization is bi-partisan, operating on a Gun Sense platform. They advocate common-sense laws to reduce gun violence and their method is to show up at hearings and other events where a group will wear red and sit in a block. E-mail campaigns, phone calls, texts and letters are another means of drawing attention to the cause.

The figures are shocking. The Moms Demand Action handout reports that everyday, 93 Americans die from gun violence, american women are 16 times more likely to be shot and killed than women in other countries and since Newtown, there have been over 200 school shootings – almost one every week.

The specific goals of Moms Demand Action are as follows:

• Closing deadly loopholes in our background check system that allow felons and domestic abusers and terrorists easy access to guns

• Promoting gun safety so children and communities will no longer be at an unacceptable level of risk

• Supporting reasonable limits on when, where and how loaded guns are carried and used in public places

• Creating enforceable laws that address gun trafficking and fraudulent purchasing to keep illegal guns off the streets

More information on joining, volunteering, finding a local chapter or donating may be found at momsdemandaction.org