Name: Beni
Social Justice Group: Mass shootings in the U.S. / School Shooting in US
Date of Fieldwork: January 17, 2023
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Million Moms March
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :
Last week, on January 17th we interviewed Donna Dees, the founder of Million Moms March; one of the largest protests against gun violence in US history. The march took place in Washington DC on Mothers Day, May 14, 2000 with a crowd of over one million people protesting for Gun Laws. Over the years, she has continued promoting gun violence prevention, wrote a award winning memoir called “looking for a Few Good Moms: How one mom rallied a million others against the gun lobby”, and co directed/produced the award winning documentary “five awake” about five Louisiana women who set out to strengthen domestic violence laws.
During the interview, Donna elaborated on Gun Carry Laws, and the fact that guns are the number one cause of children’s deaths. Many of us including myself assumed that guns used for mass shootings were predominantly bought legally. However, Donna explained that a study from the U.S Secret Service found 76% of school shooters acquired their guns from either their home or from relatives. This also relates to the issue of easy access guns at homes, where families who own guns fail to lock them up properly. Secured firearms can prevent accidental shootings, suicide, and theft. About eight kids die a day or are injured from improperly stored guns and this statistic alone emphasizes the fact we must also advocate for safe storage laws along with firm gun laws.
Donna also touched on ways teenagers like us can make a difference. Tik Tok and Social media are common in almost every teenager’s lives and we can use it to our advantage by posting/spreading the news on different accounts.
Donna was very informative during the interview and we were able to gather a lot more information. She also connected us with the Newton Action Alliance where we will be joining a lunch and lobby on January 23rd. For our first fieldwork, I found it quite successful and we received more information on ways to stop gun violence.
