WS Chronicle

The local chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is hoping to increase its outreach on gun safety and violence prevention.

The City Council Public Safety Committee heard from the group in its meeting last week. Moms Demand Action’s Julie Fritz said the organization is non-partisan, supports the Second Amendment and believes in common sense solutions to gun violence.

“We are not anti-gun; we are anti-gun violence,” she said. “We believe respecting rights and protecting people go hand in hand.”

The local chapter has been hoping to bring Sandy Hook Promise’s Know the Signs program to schools in Forsyth County. Sandy Hook Promise is a separate national organization started by family members who lost loved ones in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Know the Signs teaches students and adults to recognize if someone is showing signs of hurting themselves or others, The program has already been implemented system-wide in Guilford County Schools. Fritz said her group has been unable to connect with the local school system to make the same thing happen in Forsyth.

Moms Demand Action is another nationwide organization formed in reaction to the Sandy Hook shooting. The group offers a Be Smart program that educates adults on children’s gun safety. This includes securing guns in homes and vehicles, asking about guns in other people’s homes children might visit and recognizing the signs of teen suicide. The group also gives out trigger locks.

“Every year, 300 children age 17 and younger gain access to a gun and unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else, more than 500 more die by suicide,” said Fritz. “Most of these deaths are preventable with responsible gun storage and gun safety education.”

Moms Demand Action also advocates for closing background check loopholes, certain limits on carrying and using guns in public places and enforceable laws against gun trafficking and fraudulent gun purchases.

The local chapter meets every second Tuesday of the month at Knollwood Baptist Church. The group is also planning a school supply giveaway at Rupert Bell Community Center on Saturday, Aug. 25, from 1-4 p.m. and a concert at Green Street United Methodist Church on Sept. 23 at 3 p.m. The concert is one of hundreds that’ll be held across the country on Sept. 23, which Congress designated as a day of remembrance for murder victims.

The council members on the Public Safety Committee were impressed and said they’d see what they could do to help. City Manager Lee Garrity suggested that the group could use the city’s recreation centers for their programs.

“Thank you for the hard work that you do,” said Council Member Jeff MacIntosh. “Thank you for not just throwing your hands up and saying this is too big a problem to solve.”