The National Rifle Association has a tough new opponent: the Mom lobby.
As part of a “Million Mom March,” hundreds of mothers (and fathers, and children, as well as Borough President Marty Markowitz) braved a blustery morning on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day last week to march across the Brooklyn Bridge in support of gun control.
The family-friendly protest began at Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza at 9:15 am and ended on the steps of City Hall in Manhattan, where Shannon Watts – a former communications executive and the founder of One Million Moms for Gun Control – gave a speech praising New York’s recently passed gun legislation and calling on Congress to pass President Obama’s proposed gun-control laws.
Watts, a mother of five from Indiana, started the One Million Moms movement as a Facebook group the day after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
“I think we all felt helpless on that day,” Watts told the crowd. “But 24 hours later the shock turned into anger, and, as a mother, I knew something had to be done.”
Since the group’s modest inception, Watts said, One Million Moms for Gun Control has nearly 50,000 supporters and more than 75 chapters nationally.
Reach reporter Jaime Lutz at jlutz@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-8310. Follow her on Twitter @jaime_lutz.
