Name: Beni
Social Justice Group: Mass shootings in the U.S. / School Shooting in US
Date of Fieldwork: February 15, 2023
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Lunch and Lobby with Angela Weber
Type of Fieldwork: Direct Action
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:
During our first fieldwork we interviewed the founder of Millions Moms March, Donna Dees who then connected us to Angela Webber who works in the organization; Newtown Action Alliance. The Newtown Action Alliance is a national all volunteer organization made from groups of advocates, families of victims, survivors, etc. The organization which was created to raise awareness about gun violence in the U.S, was formed after the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting that took place on December 14th, 2012.
The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting is considered one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S history and took the lives of 20 children, 6 adults a injured 2. Before the school shooting itself, the shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza began his attack by killing his mother, Nancy Lanza in their home located in Newtown. She was shot 4 times with a .22-caliber rifle which she had purchased along with an AR-15 and several other firearms which was then used later on by Adam Lanza. After gathering the AR-15, two semi automatic pistols and a shotgun (that he left in his car), he proceeded to drive to the Sandy Hook Elementary school and entered at just after 9:30 am by shooting through a window. Adam Lanza fired 154 rounds in less than 5 minutes, claiming 26 lives with the majority being children. After officers came to the scene (alerted by an emergency call from the school) they found Adam Lanza dead near a classroom after taking his own life with a handgun. So many innocent lives were taken in just a short amount of time because of one person’s easy access to multiple guns. If his mother did not purchase those guns, 26 lives could have been saved, although there is the high likelihood that he would still have found an easy way to acquire a firearm.
During our lunch and lobby we were introduced and greeted very warmly by many other activists through a zoom call. We first received a script and a list of senators to call through a shared document. The script’s premier goal was to persuade the senators to cosponsor the Assault Weapons Ban which bans the sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of military-style assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and other high-capacity ammunition feeding devices. The Assault Weapons Ban’s main intention was to prohibit guns used in the recent Monterey park shooting.
After practicing the script a couple of times, Zoe and I called half the phone numbers while Gunnar, Kai and Eliezer called the other half. During our calls, we were often sent straight to voicemail or to the senator’s assistants/office. Although it took us a while to perfect what we were going to say, we were able to successfully transfer our message and practice talking to people professionally. During this whole process of our first time lobbying, we were able to learn about more ways people, especially young teenagers like us can be more effective or how to use our voice to make change. We also learned more about certain gun laws that are being passed in the senate and overall have started to obtain more information about our topic.
