Five years after Sandy Hook, U.S.
gun-control advocates switch strategy
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[December 12, 2017]
By Barbara Goldberg
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five years after a
gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary
school, advocates who are disappointed with the failure of efforts to
limit access to firearms are changing their strategy.
Instead of pressuring lawmakers to push new gun-control measures through
the U.S. Congress, volunteers from groups including Moms Demand Action
for Gun Sense in America are now running for office themselves.
Nine of 13 volunteers trained by the group ran for office this year and
won seats, ranging from New Hampshire state representative to city
council member in West University Place, Texas. Fourteen more have
already declared their intentions to run for office in 2018, seeking
seats in Congress, state legislatures and local government, all running
as Democrats.
"The reality is that the work doesn't really start in Congress. That's
where it ends," said Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts, who
launched her group the day after the Dec. 14, 2012, massacre at Sandy
Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The group began training candidates after more than 400 of its 70,000
members said they were interested in running for office.
"This is a marathon, not a sprint," Watts said. "It's going to take
several election cycles."
Even if the next class of candidates, none of whom are running as
Republicans, succeed in winning office, they will face an uphill battle
against a U.S. Congress controlled by Republicans, who are staunch
defenders of the right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment of
the U.S. Constitution.
Sandy Hook was at the time the second-deadliest mass shooting carried
out by a single gunman in U.S. history. It sparked new energy among
gun-control advocates who pushed for fresh federal restrictions on
assault weapons, which were blocked by Republican lawmakers and the
powerful National Rifle Association lobby.
A steady stream of mass shootings have continued across the United
States since Sandy Hook, including two deadlier incidents - the
slaughter of 58 people at a Las Vegas concert in October and the
massacre of 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub last year.
GRASSROOTS EFFORT
Mark Barden, whose son Daniel was among the 20 first graders killed in
Newtown, said he believes grass roots achievements like the new crop of
gun-control candidates will lead to more action.
"This is a social change and it takes time," Barden said. "What's
happening in Congress notwithstanding, the change is going to come from
the ground up."

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Mourners hold signs during a solidarity vigil in memory of victims
of Las Vegas' Route 91 Harvest music festival mass killing, in
Newtown, Connecticut U.S., the site of the 2012 Sandy Hook school
shooting, October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Michelle McLoughlin/File Photo

In the meantime, Barden is working with Sandy Hook Promise, a
volunteer effort to prevent more shooting deaths. The group said
that in the past two years it has trained 2.5 million students and
families to recognize signs of potential gun violence and report
them to authorities.
Social change, whether it is about drunk driving or recycling, comes
from the ground up, said Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan
died in the Sandy Hook attack.
"In the gun violence prevention movement, we have not focused on
getting behavioral change. It's all been focused on top-down and
that is not how you get change," she said.
Next year's class of gun-control candidates includes a mother whose
son was shot dead and a bystander paralyzed from the middle of her
chest down in a drive-by shooting.
Lara Kennedy is running for U.S. House of Representatives in the
Texas district that encompasses Austin and north of San Antonio.
Lucy McBath, whose only child Jordan Davis was shot dead after an
argument over music while parked in Florida in 2012, is running for
the Georgia House of Representatives.
In Arizona, Jennifer Longdon, who was wounded in a random 2004
shooting, also is seeking to become a state representative. In
Arkansas, Adrienne Kvello is challenging incumbent Republican state
Representative Charlie Collins, who sponsored bills to put more guns
on college campuses, in courthouses and the state capitol.

Amber Gustafson, a gun-owning Moms Demand Action volunteer and
life-long Republican who switched her party registration to Democrat
last year, said if she wins her race for an Iowa state Senate seat,
she will fight for gun safety laws aimed at preventing another Sandy
Hook.
"I'm pro people defending their Second Amendment rights. But I also
believe and know that good laws can really protect lives," Gustafson
said.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by
Marguerita Choy)
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