For those of you who find an actual stop at the MMM website too nauseating to contemplate, here’s the latest from Ms. (Blech!!). Please note that they’re staking out the national Republican convention on July 29th. Does anyone know of a counter-effort going on? Philly’s only 6 hours from me – I can be there:

http://www.millionmommarch.com/html/new/anniversaryletter.html

Dear Mothers and Others,
Happy Anniversary! It is June 14 and exactly one
month today since we stunned our naysayers and even ourselves with our gigantic turnout in Washington and at our rallies across the nation. The final count of marchers was about 820,000 (some say more) for the millions of moms across America. Moms marched in Juneau, Alaska, and Jackson, Mississippi,
and Tulsa, Oklahoma, just to name a few.

And now the Million Mom March marches on…

The first big news: Shortly after the March, the Board of Directors for the Bell Campaign, the fiscal sponsor for the March, voted to merge completely with the volunteer grassroots operation of the Million Mom March and adopted its name. The Bell Campaign is
now providing the staffing that is so urgently needed to help manage this incredible volunteer force that is taking the gun violence prevention movement by storm.

We have 129 MMM chapters in formation across the United States. 129! And more applications are coming in every day. We?ve had interest from every single state. The most active states have been New Jersey and Maryland. There?s also been a lot of organizing in Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida and California. And we?ve only just begun. By this time next year, we hope to be a force as effective as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Many of you are anxious to get moving to flex the Million Mom March muscle. You?ll be happy to hear that our MMM legal team isbusy completing IRS paperwork to turn the Million Mom March into a grassroots lobbying organization.

To explain how the Million Mom March will march on, we will be holding a series of workshops for MMM chapter organizers. The workshops are taking place in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, and just outside Washington, DC. If you want to start a
Chapter, please call us at 1.800.746.4464, or send an email to [email protected] or snailmail us at MMM, SF General Hospital, SF, CA 94110. All members and potential members should contact us for more information. This is a critical step to help create a sustainable organization that will serve us well in our educational and advocacy work in the months and years ahead.

So we all stay on the same page and speak as one voice, please note that our main national policy is the licensing of handgun owners and the registration of their handguns. This is just a basic common sense policy that would treat handguns much like automobiles. There is a huge misconception that we already have this policy when, in fact, most states do not have even the most basic laws in place to keep guns from the wrong hands, particularly those of children and criminals.

Since the March, Senators and Members of Congress are seriously and openly talking about licensing and registration. Our March greatly increased the dialogue on Capitol Hill, and we?re working to make sure that legislation moves toward our policy goals and that lawmakers know that America is watching what they do on this issue.

Our great website has been updated. You can now click on ?Mother?s Day 2000? and read many of the memorable speeches made on that historic day. And even more web updates are underway. Please give us your thoughts and please, please encourage your friends to log on and register with the MMM. The more names we can gather, the more seriously we will be taken as a force for creating meaningful and effective gun violence prevention policy in this country.

Artists, musicians and others have offered their creative services to us. The incredible volunteer editor of our website tapestry, Rene Thompson, has been asked to edit a book of the woven words of the Million Mom March tapestry. Also, lots of documentaries are in the works. We?ll keep you posted on broadcast dates. If you hear about national shows doing Million Mom March segments or anything related to us you think we might care about, please let us know so we can watch or set our vcrs.

And speaking of video, tapes of the Million Mom March
are available through C-Span for about $60.00. But, we?re making several videos ourselves right now, so you might want to wait for our own great tapes. Stay tuned. If you can?t wait, you can reach C-Span at 1.877.662.7726. The Million Mom March item identification number is 157045.

Last week, for the first time ever, Michigan legislators had more phone calls, emails and faxes from people like us than from the NRA. Some stalled gun safety legislation suddenly got un-stalled in the days immediately following the march.
In New Hampshire, two dozen people wearing Million Mom March t-shirts watched as the State House passed a bill which would punish gun owners who allow children easy access to their firearms. In New Jersey, the Republican controlled State Senate passed a childproof handgun bill. Both bills have a way to go, but suddenly our elected officials are listening to us and not the NRA.

The DC area moms are a feisty bunch, keeping an eye on Congress for us. Lillian Pubillones-Nolan reports that Minority Leader Tom Daschle had to shut down the Senate for 24 hours in order to get a vote on
a non-binding Sense of the Senate resolution praising the Million Mom March. It passed by one vote, 50-49 !!! Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott introduced a meaningless resolution, restating the right to bear arms and asking for enforcement, yada, yada, yada,
which passed 69-30. The Senators who voted to praise the moms were all the Democrats (minus Baucus from MT), plus four Republicans (Chafee from RI, Warner from VA, Jeffords from VT, and DeWine from OH).

From the hypocrisy department, Mandy Katz, one of the DC area moms who attended the Senate vote, noted that to protect Congressmen, pro-gun and otherwise, she had to pass through no fewer than three separate metal detectors before entering the Senate chamber. Our defenseless children do not enjoy such protection in the classrooms where they spend theirdays.

T-shirts are back for sale on our site. They were a hot item in Washington, as many of you know too well, and we quickly ran out.

We?re actively reaching out to young people to join the Million Mom March. You can get more information on youth involvement on our website.

On a sad note, a car accident recently took the life of the three-year-old daughter of Kim Fox-Gunderson who was recently hired to be the MMM Director of Victim Resources in San Francisco. All of us here at MMM have Kim and her family in our thoughts and prayers and are searching for ways to support them.

SOME DATES TO MARK ON YOUR CALENDAR

June 14
A vigil will be held at 6pm to honor child victims of gun violence. House Democrats will join parents, members of the Million Mom March and other gun control advocates in calling on Congress to take up reasonable gun safety legislation. Poster-sized pictures of sixty children who died from gun violence will be displayed at the vigil and in the halls of Congress until the end of June. Call Congressman Gephardt?s office at 202.225.0100 or go to democraticleader.house.gov for more information.

June 18
Please be sure to call your Congressman, wish him Happy Father?s Day and remind him to support licensing and registration. You can
call the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives at the same number:
202.224.3121.

July 29
On the eve of the Republican Convention, Silent March activists from around the nation will lay out 30,000 pairs of shoes representing the number of people killed in one year from firearms. The shoes will be displayed in front of the Liberty Bell Pavilion, and the rest will be nearby in Independence Mall. Tom Mauser, whose son was killed in the Columbine massacre, will receive an Advocate of the Year award from the Silent March. For more information go to www.silentmarch.org or call 516.247.9101.

July 30
?SLAM the NRA? concert in Philadelphia co-sponsored by HCI and SLAM Records.

July 31-August 3
Republican Convention in Philadelphia. We?ll be
there.

August 14-17
Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. We?ll be
there, too.

August 17
One year anniversary of Donna Dees-Thomases
submitting first permit application to march on Washington forMother?s Day–just nine months away. On the permit application line asking for estimated number of participants, Donna put down 10,000! We had that and more in both
Chicago and Denver, the two largest demonstrations sites outside of the centerpiece event in Washington, DC.

August 24
The 80th Anniversary of the Ratification of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. Not having email, or a website, it took the suffragettes 76 years to get the amendment ratified. Tennessee delivered the crucial 36th vote necessary for final adoption of the amendment. The deciding vote within the Tennessee legislature was cast by a 24-year-old legislator Harry Burn who changed his “nay” to a “yea” at the insistence of his elderly mother. In honor of Mrs. Burn, please be sure to register to vote if you haven’t already. The League of Women Voters will helpyou out at: www.lwv.org/voter/getout.html. You can download voter registration forms and doublecheck the registration deadlines in your
state.

September 4 – Labor Day
The one year anniversary of the first news
conference by the founding 25 mothers (and one honorary mom, i.e. a man) announcing plans to march on Washington to demand common sense gun laws.

September 15-17
The first annual Million Mom March conference in
Denver.

October 2
First Monday 2000: United to End Gun Violence is anational campaign promoting education and action geared towardreducing gun violence. Hundreds of events will occur on campuses
and in communities on or near the first Monday of October. For more information go to their website: www.firstmonday2000.com/index.html.

November 7 – Election Day.
The New York City Chapter of the MMM has
officially adopted for their chapter the slogans, “Million Mom March… to the polls!” and “Mama says, Vote!”

My heartfelt thanks to each of you for your dedication in marching forward to prevent the needless gun deaths and injuries that are too common in our country. We have the attention of not only our nation, but the entire international community as well. We are going to be powerful. We will be a major force for common sense gun laws.
It is a privilege to be marching with you. March on!!!

Mary Leigh Blek,
President and Chairmom of the MMM