Tracy Egan, a member of the North Suburban Chicagoland Chapter of the Million Mom March, and Steve Young, the organization’s regional director, spoke to about 15 students in Norris University Center’s Louis Room about their experiences with the gun control movement.
The Million Mom March organized a 750,000-person demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Mother’s Day 2000 to demand increased gun-safety legislation. Nearly 250 chapters of the group are now in existence and lobbying for new laws.
Egan spoke first, telling the audience why she was compelled to join the gun control movement.
“The fact that over 30,000 Americans are killed by guns a year is a tragedy,” she said. “We really need to reconsider the way we treat guns in this country because other Western, industrialized countries don’t have the problems we do.”
She said gun control is an important issue for college students because gun violence is increasing, and students should consider the environment in which they will raise their children.
“Kids tell us they have a hard time getting school supplies, but they can go downstairs and get a gun,” Egan said.
The Million Mom March has established five national policy goals. One goal is to require licensing of handgun owners. Another is to register all handguns. The organization also is lobbying for product safety standards for firearms, Egan said, because guns and bullets are the only products not regulated by consumer safety laws.
A fourth aim of the group is to close the “gun control loophole,” which allows people to purchase guns at weekend gun shows without background checks.
The group also is working to enact “one-gun-a-month” legislation preventing citizens from purchasing more than one gun a month for personal use.
Young spoke about his personal call to join the gun control movement, which occurred more than four years ago when his son Andrew was shot and killed while driving on the border of Evanston and Chicago. He encouraged students to learn about the gun control movement and to become involved in it.
“One of the primary goals of the Million Mom March is to work with youth,” Young said. “The idea around our organization is that political power starts locally.”
Young said the Million Mom March is organizing an upcoming letter-writing campaign, and invited Campus Alliance to write to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) in support of gun-safety legislation.
Some students said they enjoyed the speakers and their message.
“It was great to get the gun control laws straight as students, and to find out what we can do about it,” said Purvi Shah, an Education junior.
The Million Mom March speakers are the second event this year for the Campus Alliance to End Gun Violence, which was started this year by Speech junior Greg Newman.
Sherialyn Byrdsong, the wife of former NU men’s basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, spoke Fall Quarter about her husband’s murder.
