Tippecanoe ACTS presses forward after gun reform warning: ‘An exhausting fight’
‘No more thoughtlessly wringing our hands … no more sadly shaking our heads,’ organizers vow after another school shooting rallies Greater Lafayette promises to press for gun reforms
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With 100-plus people filtering into the YWCA Wednesday night, a crowd looking to corral the anger and sadness still fresh from the shooting deaths of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, a cautionary tale greeted them.
Julia Chester, a West Lafayette mom, a Purdue professor and a state leader with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense, told the room rallying around a new effort called Tippecanoe ACTS that they had to have faith and confidence that they were in the majority.
That despite the lobbying money and power of the NRA and other gun rights groups, she was convinced that those gathered on a downtown Lafayette gym – looking for ways to keep guns out of the wrong hands and curb mass shootings at schools, grocery stores, churches … wherever – were in the majority.
Convincing lawmakers of that has never been and probably never will be easy, even after the May 24 killings at Robb Elementary in Uvalde or after the killings at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo in the weeks earlier.
“This is an exhausting fight,” Chester said.
“What I’ve seen over the years is that people will come, people will go. Mass shootings will bring people in, and they will stay for a little while, and then people will go,” said Chester, herself motivated to advocate for changes in gun laws after the December 2012 school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary.
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