| Million Mom March |
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| gun politics | |
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The Million Mom March had its roots in August 1999, when Donna Dees-Thomases , a New Jersey mom, was horrified that a gunman shot at children in Granada Hills, California . Dees-Thomases decided a week later to apply for a permit to march on Washington and protest the lack of so-called "meaningful gun laws" in America. In September 1999, she was joined by 25 Tri-State mothers at a news conference in Manhattan, and announced that a grassroots movement of mothers called the Million Mom March would march on Washington on Mother's Day in May 2000. On Sunday, May 14, 2000, supporters claimed that 750,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC to demand what they called sensible gun laws, and that an additional 150,000 to 200,000 people across the country also showed their support through holding sympathy marches. CBS News and other major network TV news organizations covered the march extensively. {Link without Title} Donna Dees-Thomases, however, was also a professional publicist who was:
The group she founded believes that: "All Americans have the right to be safe from gun violence in their homes, neighborhoods, schools, and places of work and worship. All children have the right to grow up in environments free from the threat of gun violence. Gun violence is a public health crisis that harms not only the physical, but also the spiritual, social, and economic health of our families and communities. The availability and lethality of guns make death or severe injury more likely in domestic violence, criminal activity, suicide attempts, and unintentional shootings. It is possible to reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by gun violence with reasonable, common sense policy." {Link without Title} Additionally, the League Of Women Voters participated in this partisan support of the position of but a single political party. Taken together, these details clearly make the case that this was a carefully-orchestrated, well-funded, and professionally-staffed operation instead of being a loosely-knit grassroots movement of Soccer Mom s. Likewise, relative to the number of attendees, the permit application with the Capital police obtained by the "former" professional public relations specialist contained an estimated attendance of 150,000 maximum would be in attendance, instead of one million. Photos taken at the time that ran in the Web newspaper Alamance Independent made doubtful that even 20,000 (at most) were there, and the press kit organizers themselves handed out also made their later claim of 700,000 in attendance extremely implausible. {Link without Title} Some major urban dailies at the time published estimates of attendance that were well under 100,000. The after-the-fact conclusion drawn by many conservative media critics was that this was (and remains) a massive left-wing Propaganda effort in the ongoing Culture Wars in America to encourage anti- Second Amendment beliefs among the unsuspecting public, pushing an agenda counter to the Bill Of Rights . Members of the organization claim that it was (and remains) a grassroots movement of ''moms against gun violence''. Activities of the organization include Apple Pie Awards that go to those individuals that the organization believe are "doing something to eliminate guns and gun violence in America", and '''Time Out Chair''' identifications for those ''out-of-touch'' people supporting Gun Rights . The organization is opposed to the legalization of various Semi-automatic firearms and is diametrically opposed to the agenda of the National Rifle Association and other gun rights and sportsman's groups. Since 2001 they have also been affiliated with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The Million Mom March , which started as one of the largest protest marches on Washington, presently has a national network of 75 Chapters around the U.S. that work locally. The organization is also part of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. SEE ALSO
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