By MONIQUE HOWARD
The Sun
The South Jersey Now–Alice Paul Chapter recently hosted a virtual township presentation on gun safety.
“Gun Safety and Gun Violence Prevention in New Jersey: State of the State” offered an overview of programs and legislative advocacy on the issue.
During the presentation, Ellen McHenry, legislative lead for the South Jersey chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, discussed her background as a retired principal at Chesterfield Elementary and how her experiences at the Burlington County school led to her current role with the gun safety group.
“I was still working there (at Chesterfield) in 2012 when Sandy Hook happened, and you know there were 20 children killed, six adults killed, so that mass shooting really rocked a lot of people,” McHenry recounted of the 2012 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, “particularly when I was working as an elementary-school principal in a district that was very similar demographically, age wise and all that.”
After the shooting, Chesterfield Elementary took additional security measures that restricted many visitors in common areas at the front of the building and limited school programs. After the 2018 mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school that killed 17 people, McHenry – who was retired by then – wanted to make a difference by joining Moms Demand Action.
“My husband’s brother’s two boys were in the Parkland school,” she recalled. “They were both okay physically. They were not involved in anything directly that day, but they went through that trauma.”
Her presentation at the South Jersey Now–Alice Paul Chapter event explained how the gun safety organization operates and the programs it provides. The South Jersey chapter of Moms Demand Action participates in the annual New Jersey Advocacy Day in Trenton every April. The year’s theme was “Educate to Advocate” and focused on gun safety legislation.
Moms Demand Action was founded by Shannon Watts, whose children were at Sandy Hook Elementary when the school was attacked. With 10 million participants, it has become the largest grassroots gun prevention organization in the country. Anyone interested in preventing gun violence can join.
Moms Demand Action works to pass state and federal laws on guns and advocates for candidates who want to do the same. Its programs include “Be SMART,” a program that trains adults to educate children about gun safety, and the organization also educates people about New Jersey red flag laws and ERPOs (Extreme Risk Protection Orders).
As always, support is also provided to gun violence victims.
At the end of the virtual meeting, a Q&A session produced a question on what states have the lowest gun violence rates. Based on a report by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, New Jersey was mentioned among the top 10.
