Special Report: Gun Sense with guest Shannon Watts, Founder of Moms Demand Action ✊🏽
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Season 2: Episode 119 Description
Special Report: ⚠️ **Grab your grown-up for this episode as we talk about gun violence and gun safety.🔒 Listen in as we break down the definitions that you might be hearing about gun laws. 📜 Correspondent Pamela Kirkland sat down with Shannon Watts, Founder of Moms Demand Action, and Mikayla Jordan, youth activist. ✊🏽 Hear what they are doing to engage volunteers and push for change. 🧡 Want to take action? 🧡 Join the Wear Orange weekend on June 3-5th and check out our resources for more ways to talk about gun safety with your families.
Sources
Second Amendment | Text, Meaning, Definition, & History | Britannica
lobbying | Definition & Facts | Britannica
National Rifle Association of America | History, Lawsuit, Purpose, & Facts | Britannica
How background checks and ‘red flag’ gun laws work | PBS NewsHour
Talking to Our Kids About the News
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TRANSCRIPT:
Bethany Van Delft 0:00
Hey Ten'ers, in today's special episode, we're talking about gun violence and gun laws. It's really important that you listen to this one with a grown-up. So grab them and we'll be here when you're ready. In the past couple of weeks, there have been two mass shootings in the news, you may have heard about one at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and another at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, when things like this happen, you may have questions like, why did the shooter do this? How did this person have access to a gun? And why aren't we able to prevent it from happening again? In today's special episode of the Ten News, we're discussing gun violence in America and meeting two people who are working to reform gun safety laws and spread gun safety education in order to keep kids and all people safer in the US. I'm Bethany Van Delft, it's May 26th. And this is the Ten News.
Various Voices 0:56
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bethany Van Delft 1:04
When discussing guns and gun laws in the US, lots of different terms are used. So we're gonna go over some of the terms you'll hear here and in other places, okay. We say gun violence. But what does that mean? When we're using it here, we mean people hurting others with guns either on purpose or accidentally gun control. This is used to describe legislation that would limit people's access to guns. Gun Safety Advocates, people who work to pass gun safety legislation prefer to use the term gun safety or gun sense to refer to their efforts. The second amendment, is an amendment in the Constitution that pro-gun groups point two as giving them the right to own and carry guns. The amendment was added to the US Constitution in 1791 and says a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A militia is an Army made up of regular citizens not trained soldiers. And for many years, it was argued whether or not this covered individual'’ gun rights. And in 2008, the Supreme Court addressed the case that involved the Second Amendment and voted five to four that the amendment allows us, citizens, to have a gun at home for self-defense. Many constitutional historians disagree with that decision. Lobbying. It's something people in groups do. To lobby is to attempt to influence the decisions of the government. The name comes from the location where it first started the lobby of the government buildings. Lobbyists are people whose job is to influence the decisions of lawmakers lobbying is protected under the First Amendment because it's considered a petition to the government. But it's also regulated and reported so that we as citizens can see which lobbyists gave money or gifts to lawmakers in exchange for voting a certain way. There's a lot of discussion around how much money is spent by pro-gun groups on their efforts to lobby members of Congress and are a this sensor the National Rifle Association. This group of gun enthusiast was founded in 1871 is a sports club. In recent decades, the NRA has fought hard to stop any laws that limit gun ownership. For example, when the US Center for Disease Control, or CDC did research and discovered that having a gun at home makes gun deaths more likely, the NRA lobbied Congress to ban the CDC from doing any research about guns and they were successful. The CDC isn't allowed to research how guns affect our health. When it comes to gun legislation. Two important terms to know are background checks and red flag laws, background checks or checks that happen when anyone tries to buy a gun at a federally licensed dealer. The buyers name is locked up in a national database that is managed by the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the database notes if they've committed certain crimes or in trouble with the law or have an issue that restricts them from owning a gun. The FBI will investigate and decide whether that person can buy a gun. These checks are not required everywhere. Gun shows and buying privately from another person are exempt from this law. And lastly, red flag laws, which are very important, they're laws that allow loved ones, teachers, or health care providers to ask the courts to take a person's gun away if they're concerned they might hurt themselves or others, but that process can take a long time. Of course the bad news makes the headlines, but just know there are people out there making good news by engaging committee ladies and legislators around gun safety laws and actions. A few months ago correspondent Pamela Kirkland sat down with Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a group dedicated to gun safety, education and reform and youth activist Mikayla Jordan, one of the student group chapter leaders.
Pamela Kirkland 5:22
Shannon, I wanted to start with you to ask what inspired you to start Moms Demand Action?
Shannon Watts 5:28
Yeah, I am a mom of five. And I was really spurred to action after a school mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. It was called Sandy Hook school. And I had never been involved at all in any kind of activism. And I have never been personally impacted by gun violence. But, you know, I was really afraid that my kids weren't safe in their schools. I now know almost nine years later that mass shootings and school shootings are really a very small amount of gun violence in this country. It's really everyday gun violence. But that was how I got off the sidelines and got involved. And today, Moms Demand Action along with students demand action. We're the largest grassroots movement in the country. We have over 8 million supporters and volunteers like me who wake up every day and work on this issue, electorally, legislatively, and culturally, to try to save lives.
Pamela Kirkland 6:28
Mikayla to you, what inspired you to start a chapter of student demand action in your hometown of Birmingham?
Mikayla Jordan 6:37
Here in Birmingham in 2018, a girl named Cortland Arrington, unfortunately, was accidentally killed in class in between class changes. And that really made me angry when leaders came out. And so their thoughts gave thoughts and prayers, and we really like got nothing. There's no change. There's no outrage on the national level people. I feel like a lot of students were angry and a lot of mothers are angry. And yeah, so that's what I really did when I really got involved my sophomore year of high school in 2018. And now we've grown so much. We now have the Alabama Virtual field office is where we connect with students all across Alabama. And we work together to end gun violence, as Alabama is the third highest state with the highest amount of gun deaths in the nation.
Pamela Kirkland 7:30
What's it been like to see the response to your group in Birmingham?
Mikayla Jordan 7:37
Um, it's honestly really surprising. We get a lot of support from a lot of Birmingham moms, especially they're so energetic and like happy that students are coming forward and helping out with this issue because they had already been working so like deeply in Birmingham and Alabama in general. But also with my local legislators. Recently, over the summer, really, we hold held a peace rally for wearing orange, which is National Gun Violence Awareness Day. And we got to talk to a lot of local legislators and tell them our opinions to other than how we feel unsafe not only in schools but in our communities, because we're not just students, we're kids. And a lot of us grow up in these inner-city areas with a lot of gun violence. So yeah.
Pamela Kirkland 8:29
Shannon, I want to talk about what Mikayla just said about gun violence compared to other countries. Why are there more shootings in the US than anywhere else?
Shannon Watts 8:39
What makes America so much different is that we actually give children easy access to firearms in this country. We know about 5.4 million children live in homes with unsecured guns, meaning they're not locked, they're loaded. And they're easily accessible. Most school shooters in this country, our students, over 90% of them, and over 80% of them have easy access to guns in their homes. The other thing we know is that in about 100% of the cases we've looked at, there has been some kind of red flag or a warning sign beforehand that was ignored. So there are a few things that we can do to address these issues and make our schools safer. First of all, something called the Red Flag Law, which we've now passed in 19 states. It allows families or police to get a temporary restraining order from a judge to disarm someone who seems to be a risk to themselves or others until they can figure out whether there's a threat. And so these laws are incredibly important, and we're working to pass these legislatures across the country. The other thing secure storage, only 23 states currently we require adult gun owners to responsibly store their firearms, which is a real issue. And so we are trying to pass these laws but also we work to pass resolutions through school boards that require notification into families that say, Here's how to securely store your firearms if you're a gun owner, and just generally, you know, making sure that we tell kids, if you see something, say something, and make sure adults are aware if there's a potential threat, those are some very common-sense measures that we can take to address school shootings in this country.
Pamela Kirkland 10:19
And Shannon, how can parents talk to their kids about gun violence in schools? Are there any good resources that you would maybe direct them to?
Shannon Watts 10:29
Well, you know, if you go to be smart for kids.org, we talk a little bit about how to talk to kids and adults about secure gun storage. You can also go to Moms Demand action.org. For more information, I talk a lot about this in my book fight like a mother and all the proceeds go to gun violence prevention organizations. I have a whole chapter on talking to your kids about this issue. But I think it this question brings up an important point, which is a lot of times these conversations come up around lockdown drills. There's data that shows that lockdown drills cause depression, anxiety, worsening school performance, and even sleeplessness among students, parents, and teachers. So we have some guidelines. And again, these are on Moms Demand action.org, about how we think that school drills should be conducted. For example, we think families should always have a heads up before they happen, they shouldn't be a surprise. And that also gives parents an opportunity to opt-out if their kids they don't want their children to participate. But they should also never simulate gun violence. Just like if we have a fire drill. We don't set a fire in the hallway, we shouldn't be having the sound of gunshots or playing videos of people who've been through school shootings.
Pamela Kirkland 11:43
Shannon, we can talk about the statistics. But we know gun violence in schools is, unfortunately, happening more frequently than ever before. But there's also an overwhelming majority of Americans who care about preventing gun violence. What do you think is blocking change from happening in terms of legislation and lawmaking?
Shannon Watts 12:05
Well, I think it feels like there's not a lot being done. If you're only looking at the US Senate. Right, we know that the House has put forward legislation that would save lives, things that would like closing the background check loophole, disarming domestic abusers, and just generally closing loopholes that make us more vulnerable. The house has done its job. It's the US Senate that hasn't acted. However, the Biden-Harris administration has done more on this issue than any administration in history through executive action, and also through funding. But if you're looking at work on the ground, if you're looking at the momentum that we're building, in city councils and school boards and state houses, a lot has been done, and a lot has been accomplished. And in fact, you know, we don't just play offense, we play defense, and we've beaten the NRA, year after year for the last six years in state houses all across the country, 90% of the time, we've stopped their agenda. And when you look at that momentum that we're building on the ground, all the work that's being done day in and day out, you really do realize that we've made so much progress in less than a decade.
Pamela Kirkland 13:14
Yeah. And looking at that momentum, do you feel like that could eventually push change?
Shannon Watts 13:20
Absolutely. I mean, you know, the, again, the work that you do on the ground is really how any social issue happens in this country. If you look at anything from the Civil Rights Movement, to suffrage, to child labor laws, drunk driving all the way up to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, these are our social justice movements that take years, if not decades, to accomplish, our system is set up for incremental ism. And it can be incredibly frustrating. But it's what leads to revolutions. You know, activism is like drips on Iraq, and you have to show up over and over and over again. And when you lose, you still have to show up over and over and over again. And that's really how you force change in this country. I think if I learned anything in the last decade, it's that Congress is not where this work begins. It's where it ends.
Pamela Kirkland 14:12
And so what is Gun Sense in America? What does that mean, as part of the mission of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action?
Shannon Watts 14:23
Gun Sense is really just a way to say common sense. It means that we can all be doing more to protect our families and our communities from gun violence. And it's really up to everyday average citizens to make sure that our lawmakers are doing what we say and not what gun lobbyists say.
Pamela Kirkland 14:43
Thank you both so so much. You know, it's a really tough topic, but appreciate you both taking the time.
Bethany Van Delft 14:51
Pamela recorded this segment with Shannon and Michaela a few months ago, but yesterday she reconnected with Michaela to follow up on the recent shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Let's go back to Pamela and Michaela.
Pamela Kirkland 15:04
When things like this happen, it can feel really scary just as a student and just as a kid, how did you deal with those feelings?
Mikayla Jordan 15:14
I think personally when things like this happen, I have to take time for myself shut off electronics, I became very overwhelmed. So I had to make sure to put my phone down. Take some time for me to meditate. Just so I can, like overcome this and think about the work that I'm doing today. What are you gonna do to combat this? How are you gonna call on our legislators to take action? And like, what else in there like movement, like, what do we need to do next?
Pamela Kirkland 15:47
What are some strategies you use to make sure you know what's going on. But at the same time, like you said, you're not feeling overwhelmed by all of this information that's coming in.
Mikayla Jordan 15:58
Personally, I like to make sure I'm using trusted sources when I'm looking at this new heart-wrenching information. So making sure you have trusted sources will also give you clarity of mind, but also put your phone down. It's scary, and it's okay for it to be scary. But it's also okay to take take a break from that consumption that media consumption. So yeah, when sad things happen, my I'll call him my childhood friend, Mr. Rogers used to say look for the helpers.
Pamela Kirkland 16:30
And you can always find people who are helping, and you're one of those Helpers, it's people like you who are working to prevent things like this from happening again, what are some of the positive things you look for when things like this happen?
Mikayla Jordan 16:47
Like you're saying, I definitely look for the helpers, looking towards like my other organizers. In our like, in our advisory work group, we share how we're feeling about the state of things that happen. So yesterday, I think each one of us shared a little bit like a blurb of like, our feeling about how we were in that moment. Um, it's okay to lean on your peers. It's okay to talk about things that like happen like this, um, don't keep it bottled up, because then you just don't know how to react. So yeah, definitely lean on your parents, your friends, your teachers, and things like this. And I feel like to have a community like understanding of like, stuff like this is actually very beneficial to like yourself, and having like, clarity in these types of situations.
Pamela Kirkland 17:38
Yeah. And any advice for kids who maybe are a little nervous about going to school, you hear about something like this happening, and you know, you're you get scared.
Mikayla Jordan 17:49
School is one of the best places for you to be safe. So I always lean back on that even though we see these types of shootings, mass shootings happen, they count for only 1% of gun violence. So I've still continued to assert and believe that school is the safest option for you.
Pamela Kirkland 18:08
Yeah, it can just seem with the News and images that you see and things you hear about that. Maybe it's not, but like you said, it's still one of the safest places you can be. And it is a rare occurrence, even though we feel like we hear about it so so often. But Mikayla, thank you so much for spending some time with us today on the Ten.
Bethany Van Delft 18:29
Thank you, Pamela, and so much gratitude from the Ten News to Shannon and Mikayla for all that they're doing to spread gun sense. If you're looking for a way to show your support for putting an end to gun violence. June 3 through the fifth you can wear orange during National Gun Violence Awareness Day, and wear orange weekend, more information can be found at weareorange.org. That's all the time we have for today. If you have questions or feelings that you want to talk about, please go to your trusted grownups. We've also included resources in the show notes to help continue the conversation. Here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to the Ten News. Look out for our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a coproduction of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is discussing gun sense with their families. And includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Ryan Willard, Adam Barnard, and Tessa Flannery. Pamela Kirkland contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright, and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to the Ten News.
