Name: Luca Chou

Social Justice Group: 2023-2024, Gun Violence Epidemic: NYC and USA

Date of Fieldwork: January 29, 2024

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Newtown Action Alliance

Type of Fieldwork: [69]

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:

Today, January 29, both gun violence groups joined the Newtown Action Alliance’s lobbying event. Newtown Action Alliance is a group of people who are trying to reduce gun violence percentages through legislative and cultural changes. In this event students learned more about gun violence and recent events related to it. We also learned how to contact senators and asked them to co-sponsor S. 173, Ethan’s Law. Ethan’s law says that gun owners should be required to secure their firearms in a “secure gun storage or safety device” if a minor is likely to gain access to the firearm without permission, or if a resident of the dwelling cannot legally possess a firearm under existing law. We are fighting for this law because way too many children have died from accidental gun deaths. Most of these deaths came from improperly stored weapons.

For the rest of the session, me and my classmates actually called the senators and proposed to them why they should sponsor Ethan’s law. It was a very enjoyable experience for me because I got to contact high power officials and have them consider helping a cause that I am very fond of, being gun control. I was not able to talk to every senator directly, but I was still able to get my point across through voicemail which was just as impactful. This experience was very special to me and I am very glad I can now put the information we learned into an informational presentation for everybody.