GIVE “EM HELL , JT - The REAL Jannie Oakley

Anybody who can’t attend the DC countermarch and wants to organize a pro gun March in their home state can contact Janalee Tobias for details on the UTAH pro gun march….
————–

http://www.sltrib.com/

Utah Moms to Face Off Over Guns
Monday, April 10, 2000

BY JUDY FAHYS
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

At first glance, these two opposing camps look awfully similar.
One is a bunch of moms set on protecting their kids against gun violence. Utah organizers of the Million Mom March plan a May 14 march and rally to demand controls aimed at keeping guns away from their children.
The other group also is made up of protection-minded mothers. They call themselves the Second Amendment Sisters, and they are planning an April 22 rally to protest gun restrictions that might make it tougher for them to arm themselves against people who might harm their kids.
“No one wants to see children hurt,” says Kimberly Scherzinger of the Million Mom March.
“I’m against gun violence, too,” adds Janalee Tobias, a Second Amendment Sister.
The national Million Mom March spurred both groups into action.
That march, set for Mother’s Day on the U.S. Capitol Mall, will bring together gun-violence opponents who want policy-makers to do a better job of protecting young Americans from gun-related deaths and injuries.
Million Moms founder Donna Dees-Thomases, a New Jersey mother and part-time television publicist, got the idea for the march after the shootings last year at the North Valley Jewish Community Center’s day care in Granada Hills, Calif. She says the group wants Congress to enact “common-sense gun laws to protect our families,” including cooling-off periods, background checks, safety-lock mandates, a one-gun-per-month purchase limit, and registration and licensing of handguns and owners.
“We moms have multiplied from 25 to at least 25,000 in the last few months. Sadly, in that same amount of time, at least 2,500 kids have died or been injured by gunfire in this country,” said Dees-Thomases. “Meanwhile, the majority in Congress has done nothing to give us relief in the way of sensible legislation.”
Salt Lake City is one of 20 communities nationally where a local march also is planned for Mother’s Day.
“I don’t think there are a lot of people against this cause,” says Scherzinger, the aunt of a 2-year-old.
“Certainly, when he gets older, we don’t want him to go to someone’s house and get harmed by a gun, or at school, or anywhere else.”
She said gun-control opponents also can support the idea of the march because the focus is on violence prevention. Still, a major backer of the effort is Utahns Against Gun Violence, a gun-control group.
Meanwhile, the newly formed Sisters have been busy getting ready for their countermarch, said Tobias, also founder of the national gun-rights group Women Against Gun Control.
“I just can’t let these [Million Mom March] moms speak for me because they don’t,” she said.
Tobias said her group believes there are better ways than gun control to shield children from gun violence, such as gun-safety training, suicide prevention and domestic-violence programs. She has been asked to speak at the Informed Mothers March in Washington on a different part of the Mall. A possible Utah rally is still in the works.
Supporters of the countermarch, the “Armed Informed Mothers March” in Washington say guns are used to prevent violent attacks against women and their families. “The purpose of A.I.M.M.,” said Kimberly Watson, one of the founders of the group, “is to get concerned women together and let Congress know that we won’t stand for having our right to defend our families ripped away.”
“We need to be focusing on the person who pulls the trigger.”
——
Gannett News Service contributed to this report.

Utah March

Salt Lake City is one of 20 communities in the country in which a march is planned to coincide with the Washington event. Utah’s will take place May 14 at 3 p.m. at the City-County Building in downtown Salt Lake City.
Organizers of the Salt Lake City Million Mom March meet at 7 p.m. each Wednesday in the Calvin Smith Branch of the Salt Lake County Library, 810 E. 3300 South. For information, call 595-8465. Or check the Internet at www.millionmommarch. com and toll free at (888) 989-6667.