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Gun legislation begins with a conversation

by Christiaan Mader

An Acadiana chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America looks to stoke conversation about common sense gun legislation with an inaugural meeting and membership drive.

I was never sure how to process the Grand Theatre shooting beyond my grief for my good friend Jillian Johnson and my helplessness. I’ll admit that gun control was never something I was more than nominally invested in politically. I’ve fired guns in the past, though have never personally owned one. I have a scar beneath my eyebrow from the recoil of a poorly sighted scope on a Winchester lever-action rifle. My heretofore opinion on the matter was muddled lip-service to the elimination of weapons meant only to end human life: pistols, automatic rifles, grenades, bombs and so on.

Jillian’s death shook me and, for lack of a better word, radicalized my view of the role firearms plays in the countless murders, suicides, and accidental deaths that occur every single day. Don’t politicize a tragedy, you might say. How can I not when political solutions exist — solutions for which there is broad support — and yet remain unapplied?

About a week after Jillian’s funeral, John Troutman and some fellow concerned citizens found themselves in that same see-saw of frustration and loss for answers. Where most of us stop at a precipice, the nebulous limit that separates the doer from ill-defined action, Troutman and company funneled energy into action, even if they weren’t sure where they’d end up.

Troutman backs Johnson on pedal steel

“Unfortunately, it took someone close to us getting killed for us to join the conversation to do something,” says Troutman.

What united them was the sense that something could be done to curb the onslaught of gun violence, that a conversation could be had among rationally interested parties, one that didn’t immediately collate points of view into mutual opposition and put gun rights advocates on guard. To that end, they sought to bring a chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America to Acadiana and join a growing and bi-partisan movement advocating for so-called common sense gun laws. At the heart of that movement is a push for comprehensive background checks at the federal level, a measure that Moms claims will save countless lives while leaving unmolested a gun owner’s right to bear arms.

“We want to take pains in this meeting to acknowledge how traumatic this summer has been for many of us and to acknowledge that it is a community-wide problem,” says Troutman. “We want to reach across partisan lines to find common ground so that legal gun owners feel secure [that] their rights will not be infringed upon.”

Comprehensive background checks, also known as universal background checks, seek to close online and gun show loopholes that have enabled millions of otherwise illegal firearm transactions, that would otherwise have been blocked by current federally required screenings. Seventeen states and Washington D.C. have comprehensive background checks on the books and have enjoyed a 48 percent reduction in cops killed by guns and a 46 percent reduction of women shot in domestic disputes. On the ground, at least, these measures enjoy diverse support with 82 percent of gun owners reporting support of the laws to conservative pollster Frank Luntz.

Acadiana, by and large, is a pro-gun community. A drive up Johnston Street involves a lot of encounters with gun-racked trucks and hunting stickers. But enjoying the sportsman’s life doesn’t preclude the rational man’s desire to see fewer people shot by illegally obtained firearms. Whether comprehensive background checks will remove all guns or eliminate all gun violence is immaterial. The fact remains that it’s an effective step and one that’s easily obtained at a variety of political levels. I would hope the preservation of even a single life would be worth the urgency of this movement. It begins with a conversation about what we, as a community, are willing to do. And that’s what Acadiana Moms is all about.

“We’re trying to create venues for public discussion. We’re not trying to steer the ship,” says Troutman. “We know we’re not representative of all the voices in Acadiana. But we can come together and have a real conversation and not get bogged down by political concerns. We can say, ‘We have a problem, what can we do about it?’”

Acadiana Moms is open to anyone who wants get involved in the conversation, including dads, sons, daughters, cousins, sisters, brothers, kids and grandparents. To inaugurate the Acadiana chapter, founding members will hold a meeting Sept. 10 at the Lafayette Public Library at 5 p.m. Scheduled speakers will include Faith House Executive Director Billi LaCombe, yours truly, and a representative of the Lafayette Police Department. The event coincides with the national Moms organization’s “Whatever It Takes” campaign, including organized presence on Capitol Hill for Congress’s return from recess.