Gun control group aims to talk with owners, find fixes

The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — As a mother and owner of a Glock semi-automatic pistol, Christie Jett understands the balance between needing to get to her gun quickly in the event of a break-in at her home and keeping it away from her three young children.

Jett, a member of the newly formed Winchester chapter of the gun control group Moms Demand Action, said the chapter is committed to finding common ground with gun owners to reduce accidental gun deaths and gun suicides. The group’s platform includes asking gun owners with children in their homes to purchase biometric gun safes that rely on fingerprint recognition to open, like the one Jett has in her home.

“We don’t want to take anybody’s guns away,” Jett said, adding that the safes are inexpensive. “We just want to shift the conversation so that’s it’s more OK to be obsessive about safety.”

In 2016, there were 38,658 gun deaths in the United States, including 1,049 in Virginia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half of the deaths were suicides.

Chapter members hope gun owners will support their call for safer storage of guns in homes with children. Between 2005-2014, 968 minors in the U.S., including 485 age 12 or younger, were killed in accidental gun deaths, according to the CDC.

In Virginia, it is illegal to leave a loaded, unsecured gun “in such a manner as to endanger the life or limb of any child under the age of 14.” But state law doesn’t require the use of gun locks or gun safes to ensure children don’t get their hands on guns. Massachusetts is the only state that requires all stored guns to be locked, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Because many chapter members have young children, safe gun storage is a very personal issue. If gun owners with children in their homes choose not to keep gun safes, the chapter wants them to keep their guns locked with the ammunition stored separately.

The group is planning to lobby the legislature next year and spread the message this year at local events, including gun shows. Members are hoping to have conversations with gun owners about the issue, rather than debates.

“We do welcome any kind of respectful conversation,” said chapter co-founder Julie Nepear.

The co-founders of the chapter, formed in response to the Feb. 14 shooting massacre that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., say they support initiatives like stricter background checks on gun sales, but they’re trying to avoid the acrimonious gun control debate. The chapter isn’t supporting the national group’s support for renewing the assault weapons ban.

While many of the group’s approximately 30 members support the ban, as do 67 percent of Americans, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, co-founder Jennifer Miller said talk of the ban alienates assault rifle owners.

“We live in a pretty conservative area, and our goal here is not to isolate those that we are trying to befriend and understand and work together with,” Miller told members during their monthly meeting Thursday. “We want to work for common-sense gun laws and ones that have the majority of Americans support.”

— Contact Evan Goodenow at egoodenow@winchesterstar.com