B2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, AUGUST 6 , 2019
Saturday at the Wardman Park
Marriott, they received a vivid
reminder of why they do what
they do as news of the shooting
in El Paso lit up their phones.
For the survivors of gun
violence at GSU over the
weekend — there were about 700
in their group of 2,000 — the old
trauma came back. For everyone
else, the old anger came back.
Instead of their usual
Saturday night gala, they ate a
quick dinner and hit the streets,
marching to the White House,
then the Capitol, chanting “El
Paso! El Paso!” and “Hey hey, ho
ho, the NRA has got to go.”
“We’re now larger than the
NRA,” Moms Demand Action
founder Shannon Watts told me
last week. “And we’re seeing the
needle move.”
Watts claims her group has
6 million supporters, though
that number is impossible to
verify. It includes anyone who
has signed up for their programs
or volunteered by marching,
tabling, phone-banking, letter
writing, organizing (or
tattooing).
Watts, a mother of five, started
the group in 2012, right after the
massacre at Sandy Hook.
Modeled after MADD —
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
— Moms Demand Action
supports the Second
Amendment and woos gun
owners. It wants to pass
common-sense laws like
background checks and red flag
laws, while opposing laws that
make it easier to carry guns on
college campuses and other
places.
“It’s like the changes in car
deaths,” Watts said. “It’s seat belt
laws. Air bags. Rumble strips.
Speed limits.”
Martha Alguera, who barely
escaped a street shooting in New
Orleans that happened days after
Sandy Hook, started the group’s
tattoo tradition at their annual
gathering a couple of years ago.
She was so fired up about
mom power that she got a
swirling heart with “One Tough
Mother” inked on her arm. The
other women loved it. The next
year, a few more got the same
one. Then the next year, they got
a new one, “Disarm Hate.”
This year, dozens of moms —
and one dad — got tattoos. Some
chose the signature heart. Others
went with the group’s 2019
slogan. It reads: “Keep Going.”
[email protected]
Twitter: @petulad“They lost their son in Pulse.”
“She was there when Gabby
Giffords was shot.”
“Her daughter was killed in
Aurora.”
And they have witnesses to the
daily carnage of gun violence on
city streets and in lonely
bedrooms.
“A family friend was killed
while playing basketball.”
“Suicide. My brother.”
While they were deep into
their breakout sessions oninjured in two more mass
shootings, this time in El Paso
and Dayton, Ohio.
Clements was one of more
than 2,000 gun violence activists
in D.C. for their annual meeting.
They call themselves Moms
Demand Action for Gun Sense in
America — and they are growing
more powerful with each
rampage we endure.
On Friday night, before the
latest mass shootings, 56 of them
left their conference rooms in a
raucous and exhilarated pack to
get tattoos signaling their
warrior status in this movement.
On Saturday night, hundreds
of them left their annual gala to
protest after word spread of the
shooting in El Paso.
Welcome to the inner circle of
the angry, fed-up and fired-up
world of Moms Demand Action.
They are as exhausted as the
rest of us by the weekly stories of
gun violence in our country, the
daily grind of drive-bys and
lonely suicides, the public
slaughters at offices, churches,
synagogues, country concerts
and garlic festivals.
But they are ready for the
fight.
They say they’re bigger than
the National Rifle Association.
And across the nation, they are
quietly changing law after law,
electing their approved
candidates to county, state and
national office, challenging the
NRA’s infamous scorecard with
their own scoring system to push
candidates.
Over the weekend,
Washington was home to their
below-the-radar boot camp,
“GSU” — Gun Sense University.
There were tattoos. And strategy
meetings. And networking. A
pajama party. Wine. Tears.
They introduce each other as a
gallery of collateral damage to
America’s relentless gun violence
epidemic:
DVORAK FROM B1
PETULA DVORAK
Moms put
their stamp
on anti-gun
movement
PHOTOS BY EVELYN HOCKSTEIN FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTLori DiCenzo Carter of
South Carolina, above,
and Erin Wiley of
Tampa, left, are among
the 56 women who got
permanent reminders
of their fight against
violence at Tattoo
Paradise last week.LET US TRANSFORM YOUR DECK!
RESTORE OPTION
- Sand all deckboards
- Re-set nails, eliminate splinters
- Replace rotted or damaged wood
- Apply 4 coats patented coating
REPLACE OPTION
- Remove old deckboards
- Remove old rails
- Install new kiln-dried wood decking
- Apply 4 coats patented coating
UPGRADE OPTION
- Remove old deckboards
- Remove old rails
- Install new maintenance-free composite
decking
- Install new maintenance-free vinyl rails
(replace option only)
- End Yearly Maintenance
- Warranty Protection
- Eliminate splinters, rotted wood, loose
boards
- Be Proud to Entertain!
GIVE YOUR DECK A FACELIFT!GIVE YOUR DECK A FACELIFT!
(RESTORE OPTION ONLY)SUMMER SPECIAL
EXP 9/15/192ND COLOR FOR RAILSFREE
$300
VALUE
60% OFF
MATERIALS
FREE EVALUATION | CALL TODAY!
Fast • Easy • Affordable
MHIC# 125679
855-280-5237