Chapters holding lemonade stands to promote gun law reform
Moms Demand Action special lemonade stand and recipe
More than 50 members from the Hudson Valley chapter of the organization Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America joined together for an afternoon of food, games and music at Mayor’s Park Tuesday, July 30.
Jane Ponlon of Nelsonville heard about the event the day before when she was at Canopus Lake with her family. “It’s a great cause, so I said yes. And I made some lemonade!” Across the country, chapters are holding lemonade stands to promote gun law reform. Their special recipe calls for “lemons from Congress, sweetness and common sense.”
For decades, gun control has prompted both national and local debate. The fact that the second deadliest mass shooting by a single person in American history took place at an elementary school has radically renewed efforts to pass gun control legislation in educational institutions.
In the wake of the spree shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Alexandra Dubroff of Philipstown became involved in Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “Like everybody, I was really devastated about what happened,” said the mother of two. “Moms Demand Action was just starting up. I went to the Facebook page and asked what I could do and they suggested I start a local chapter.”
Alexandra Dubroff, founder of the Hudson Valley chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and organizer of the event.
A nonpartisan organization, Moms Demand Action was created to demand reform from state and federal legislators, companies and schools concerning gun laws. Its website lists five “common sense solutions” to counter gun violence, which calls for a ban of assault weapons and ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds as well as background checks for all gun and ammunition purchases.
Susan Wright, a music teacher at Beacon Elementary School, wrote a song after the Sandy Hook tragedy titled A Mother’s Kiss. Once the song was uploaded to Youtube, it caught the attention of Moms Demand Action, who asked Wright if she’d be interested in performing it at events.
“It’s about Newtown but also asks ‘why are there all of these guns?’ It could have been my classroom. My students are the same age as those kids. It could have been any school.” Wright explained that emergency drills and procedures were updated post-Newtown, “it’s almost kind of scary,” she said.
For more information visit momsdemandaction.org and the Facebook page for the Hudson Valley chapter.
Photos by E. Bengel
I feel pity for the well-intentioned ignorance of these history-challeged MDA activists.
The Second Amendment of the United States has one intent: to arm the citizenry against domestic tyranny and foreign enemies, and the Founders were more worried about the former than the latter, with good reason.
Gun control led to the murders of 262 million souls by their own governments in the 20th Century alone. Let that sink in for a moment, if you dare.
When the citizens cannot defend themselves against tyrants, they are nothing. They are subject to the whim of the state, and victims to more genocides of a greater magnitude than a bunch of spoiled suburban moms with a poor grasp of history can begin to fathom.
The Second Amendment was written expressly to arm the American people with military weapons (and yes, they knew of assault rifles; Thomas Jefferson personally purchased several Giradoni rifles with 23-round detachable magazines) in order to combat our own government forces. We were endowed with a right of rebellion, in order to keep our citizens from ever becoming part of the killing fields.
You want my AR-15 and 30-round magazines? You will never have them, from me, or tens of millions of other Americans who own them. We’ve seen far too many of the mass graves in Russia, China, Turkey, Guatemala, etc. to be dumb enough to let ignorant activists lead our children and grandchildren to a far larger slaughter than their small minds can fathom.
Enjoy your lemonade, but don’t dream for a moment you will be allowed to put future generations in danger due to your ignorance and cowardice.
Bob, please listen to the song. Thanks…
When readers use our Constitution to justify their rights in a statement filled with insults against concerned mothers (“spoiled suburban moms . . ignorant activists . . with small minds”), I become convinced that it is time to put a mother in the White House.
I have to agree with Mary Ellen Finger, the insults and inferences do not help to support a point of view on any matter, much less views on the Constitution.
Scary that an extremist from North Carolina is searching so hard for people to disagree with and threaten that he comments on a post about a group of moms in New York holding a BBQ. Take a look at his blog for some other scary quotes including this line on what will happen if we institute any gun control: “Unnamed citizens and federal agents will be the first to die, and they will die by the dozens and maybe hundreds, but famous politicians will soon join them in a spate of revenge killings, many of which will go unsolved.”
Scarier still is lack of knowledge on the Second Ammendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” How you interpret that to mean anyone should be able to own an Uzi and there should be no background checks, registrations or limitations is beyond me.
Mr. Owens, you enjoy a world of safety and freedom because of the many regulations that protect you. Do you vote? I hope you do. There are regulations and laws that protect your right to vote. Many places, tyrannies for example, would not do that for you.
Do you, or have you ever, taken a medication? Again, you can trust that the medications you take are, in fact, what they are labeled to be and not going to poison you because they are regulated.
The highways and bridges you drive on, the other drivers on the road, the products you buy, even the quality of the air you breathe is all regulated for your safety. That’s why the U.S. is a really nice place to live.
Similarly, we are all entitled to the expectation of safety and to not live in fear of the next lunatic with access to a gun powerful enough to kill dozens of people in mere minutes.
Furthermore, your belief that our entire democratically elected government is in danger of becoming a murderous tyranny is so radical, so extreme, it makes liberals sound conservative by comparison.
Mr. Owens and his ilk give the majority of gun-rights advocates (like myself) a very bad name. MDA is a perfectly reasonable response to the increase in needless gun violence across this county. Owens’ response is the perfect example of why change needs to happen. Paranoia and a twisted view of history is no excuse for gun fetishism.