Mothers'
activism
takes aim
By Amy Westfeldt
The Associated Press
SHORT HILLS, N.J. — It took
an unforgettable image of young
children escaping a racist gun
man to transform Donna Dees
Thomases from a wealthy subur
ban mother into a grassroots
activist.
The image was from Aug. 10,
when a white supremacist
opened fire on a Jewish Commu
nity Center in Granada Hills,
Calif.
Dees-Thomases was flipping
channels when she saw the
video of children the same age as
her daughters crossing the street
hand-in-hand with police offi
cers.
“These were my kids crossing
the street,” Dees-Thomases said.
“My kids go to-a JCC. Anybody
could walk in. It was just crazy.”
One week later, Dees
Thomases registered a Web site
and launched the Million Mom
March campaign. The grassroots
effort is expected to become the
nation’s largest gun control
demonstration to date.
The Mother’s Day rally is ex
pected to draw 100,000 people
to the National Mall in Washing
ton, D.C. Other demonstrations
are scheduled in 20 cities nation
wide, including Tulsa, Okla., Los
Angeles, Denver and Portland,
Ore.
The group is pressing Con
gress for stricter gun control, in
cluding measures to require all
handgun owners be licensed and
registered, require built-in child
safety locks and limit handgun
purchases to one per month.
“Mothers are certainly an im
portant voice in this debate, and
they are a voice that has not been
very strong until this point,” said
Shannon Frattaroli, researcher at
the Center for Gun Policy and
Research at Johns Hopkins Uni
versity.
National Rifle Association
spokesman Bill Powers said the
organization was unconcerned
about the appeal of the May 14
rally.
“It is one of the great freedoms
of America” to express oneself
politically, he said.
Prior to the Granada Hills
shooting, Dees-Thomases con
sidered herself rather apolitical.
Today, her cluttered basement
office is adorned by bright pink
posters and T-shirts reading,
“We’re looking for a few good
moms.”
Dees-Thomases, a part-time
publicist for David Letterman’s
late-night talk show, chose the
name Million Mom March to
borrow on the success of the Mil
lion Man March rally for black
empowerment in Washington in
1995, and the subsequent Mil
lion Youth March.
The campaign has grown —
mostly by word of mouth — to at
least 500 mothers working out of
their homes and out of an office
in Washington, D.C.
The group also has received a
$300,000 grant from the Fun
ders' Collective for Gun Violence
Prevention, part of the nonprofit
Open Society Institute estab
lished by billionaire George
Soros. It also sells T-shirts for
$25, the same price as an annual
NRA membership.
“This is just common sense.
These are handguns,” she said.
“This is just stuff that should
have been done 25 years ago.”
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