- Million Mom March
-
The Million Mom March was a rally on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 14, 2000, designed to promote tighter restrictions to keep guns out of the hands of kids and criminals.[citation needed] Supporters claimed that 750,000 people gathered on the National Mall.[citation needed] Supporters of the event also claimed 150,000 to 200,000 people across the country held sympathy marches.[citation needed]
A counter-rally by the pro-gun Second Amendment Sisters, was also held on the same day.
The Million Mom March had its roots in August 1999, when New Jersey resident Donna Dees-Thomases saw broadcast coverage of the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting rampage in Granada Hills, California. Dees-Thomases decided a week later to apply for a permit to march on Washington and protest the lack of "meaningful gun laws" in America. In September 1999, she was joined by 25 Tri-State mothers at a news conference in Manhattan, and announced that a grassroots movement of mothers called the "Million Mom March" would march on Washington. CBS News, ABC News, NBC News, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News and other major network TV news organizations covered the march and counter-march extensively.[1]
Contents
Background
Following the event, the Million Mom March participants became a chapter-based organization to promote restrictions on the private ownership of firearms in state legislatures, merging with a victim led organization called the Bell Campaign, but keeping the name Million Mom March as the new organization.
The group Donna Dees-Thomases founded stated their beliefs as:[1]
"All Americans have the right to be safe from gun violence in their homes, neighborhoods, schools, and places of work and worship. All children have the right to grow up in environments free from the threat of gun violence. Gun violence is a public health crisis that harms not only the physical, but also the spiritual, social, and economic health of our families and communities. The availability and lethality of guns make death or severe injury more likely in domestic violence, criminal activity, suicide attempts, and unintentional shootings. It is possible to reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by gun violence with reasonable, common sense policy."
The organization is opposed to various semi-automatic firearms being legal and is opposed to the agenda of the National Rifle Association and other gun rights and sportsmen's groups. Since 2001 they have been affiliated with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The Million Mom March, which started as one of the largest[citation needed] protest marches on Washington, presently has a national network of 75 local chapters around the U.S...
Even though the 2000 march may have approached the 1 million mark when events in other cities were taken into account, the enthusiasm didn't last long. According to a Reuters account of the 2001 Million Mom March event, barely 200 people showed up for the Washington rally.
The group didn't plan demonstrations in Washington in 2002 or 2003, instead focusing its efforts in other states. The 2004 rally has been in the works since May 2003, according to the Million Mom March website.
See also
- Culture wars
- Gun politics in the United States
- Million Man March, African American march of protest and unity
- Millions More Movement, launched by a broad coalition of Black leaders to mark the commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the historic Million Man March.
- Million Worker March, response to alleged attacks upon working families in America and the millions of jobs lost during the Bush administration with the complicity of Congress
- List of protest marches on Washington, DC
References
External links
Categories:- Gun politics in the United States
- Safety
- Protest marches in Washington, D.C.
- Marches
- 2000 in Washington, D.C.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
