A grassroots local group is hosting a community forum to build momentum for its gun-reform platform.
“Sensible Solutions for Safety,” 6:30 p.m. Thursday at North Christian Church, 850 Tipton Lane, is being sponsored by the Bartholomew County chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. An affiliated group, Bartholomew County Indivisible, is co-sponsoring the event.
Local organizers began considering a county chapter of Moms Demand Action last fall after meeting with an established group in Bloomington, said Cate Hyatt of Columbus, who co-founded the Bartholomew County chapter with fellow resident Liz Nolan-Greven.
However, it wasn’t until the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed, that interest in the local chapter took off. A call-out meeting at First Presbyterian Church in Columbus drew about 40 people, Hyatt said.
By the time of the March for Our Lives rallies, conducted March 24 in cities across America including Columbus, membership of the Bartholomew County moms group had mushroomed to 100, Hyatt said.
It is now one of 19 Moms Demand Action chapters in Indiana, she said.
“We’re not opposed to the Second Amendment,” Hyatt said. “We don’t want to take people’s guns.”
Instead, Moms Demand Action wants to create enforceable laws to keep illegal guns off the streets, Hyatt said. It also supports legislation and policies to help reduce gun violence, she said.
“These are not political issues,” she said. “These are common-sense issues.”
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.
