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has been cycling through emotions such as
anger and heartbreak and a “bleak sense of
pride” knowing the rabbi tried to dissuade
the shooter by talking to and reasoning with
him before he himself was shot in the hands.
Even that weekend, she overheard someone
muttering hateful things about Jews at a gro-
cery store.
“
A shooting on the last day of Passover is
the culmination of Jewish people celebrat-
ing our freedom,
” she said. “But the truth
is that we were never fully free. Chained by
anti-Semitism and labeled as different, Jews
have always been the scapegoat.
“The person who took an AR-15-like
weapon and shot four people for no other
reason than them being Jewish isn’
t just a
shooter; he is an anti-Semite. He went into
the synagogue yelling anti-Semitic slurs. I’
ve
never been in an active shooter situation. But
people like the shooter are the reason why
I am apprehensive to answer the question
asked by so many people: ‘
Are you Jewish?’
Hate fuels hate. W
hen I heard an anti-Se-
mitic joke said by someone the morning
after the shooting, it wasn’
t the first time and
probably won’
t be the last.
”
First-place winner Madison Strachan, a
junior at Troy Athens High School, wanted
to communicate that guns were just as acces-
sible and tempting to children as candy. She
created a jarring PSA with the help of her
film teacher.
The bang of the gun in the final frame is
intended to make viewers jump.
The PSA opens with a young girl hopping
up on a barstool to eagerly inspect a colorful
jar of candy. Strachan’
s voice narrates with a
dull drone of some grim statistics about gun
ownership in U.S. households with young
children.
… 4.6 million children in the United
States live in a house with an unlocked fire-
arm.
… 73 percent ages 9 and under know
where it is located.
… 36 percent admitted they handled the
weapon.
As the child unwraps the candy, there is
the bang of a gunshot and the screen goes
dark.
In our society, children under age 18 take
the brunt of gun-related deaths. Between
1999 and 2016, 26,000 children under age 18
have been killed by guns, according to 2017
mortality data from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC). But, until
they are voting age, they’
ve had little to no
voice in the political process that can pass
laws to stem the tide.
Then Parkland happened.
Taking the lead from the mass shooting
survivors at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas
High School in Parkland, Fla., in February
2018, thousands of students around the
nation mobilized the March for Our Lives
movement, warning politicians they soon
will be of voting age. If they don’
t change
laws that can prevent gun violence, they will
be voted out, movement members say.
“If your gun is obtainable, a kid will be
able to find it,
” Strachan said after receiving
her award. “Film is a way to express yourself
and tell a story. When you are a high school-
er and you hear on the news how many mass
shootings there are, it’
s always in the back of
your mind if your school will be next.
”
KASKY’
S STORY
Jeff Kasky has been a formidable advocate
for sensible gun control reform long before
he was one of the hundreds of parents who
waited, terrified to hear from
their children who were
inside Marjorie Stoneman
Douglas on that horrific day
in February 2018. His two
sons survived the shooting,
and his oldest, Cameron, went
on to create the March for our
Lives movement.
Kasky, an attorney and a law enforcement
officer, is himself a gun owner. He says he
likes to go to a shooting range as a hobby
and finds cleaning his gun “relaxing.
”
But he is at odds with the long-reaching
influence of the National Rifle Association
blocking the existence of international back-
ground checks (he says that won’
t happen
until there is a digitized CDC gun owner
registry). He believes that assault rifles used
by the military have no business being in the
hands of civilians.
Kasky is president of the Families vs.
Assault Rifles political action committee.
He watched Cameron and other Parkland
survivors take action in the name of com-
mon-sense gun regulations. Kasky started
the PAC so he and other Marjorie Stoneman
Douglas parents could do their part and join
this important effort.
He was proud of his son for standing his
ground with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at a
CNN town hall meeting after the Parkland
shooting.
“(CNN) producers wanted to clear every
question my son and others were asking,
but when Cameron took that microphone, I
knew history was being made,
” Kasky said.
According to CNN, Cameron’
s question
was “Can you tell me right now that you will
not accept another single donation from the
NRA?”
Rubio did not answer the question direct-
ly, but said, “The position I hold on these
issues of the Second Amendment are posi-
tions I’
ve held since the day I entered office
in West Miami as an elected official. People
buy into my agenda, and I do support the
Second Amendment.
”
Kasky said, “It didn’
t matter that my son
was a teenager and Rubio was a politician.
Politicians must give teens like my son their
due respect.
”
He urged those at the NCJW event to
make donations to his organization if they
could, to get active if they want to see change
and, most of all, to get out and vote.
“For those who hear about tragedies and
say, ‘
That’
s terrible, what can we do?’
and
then just turn away, they need to be part of
the solution,
” Kasky said. “They need to get
active, pound the pavement and take their
lumps swatting death threats just like I and
my son have. We could not do this work to
make change without a multitude of volun-
teers and donors.
”
STATE ACTION
JAC ii in April held a parlor meeting with
about 20 young adults in attendance and
invited State Reps. Mari Manoogian and
Robert Wittenberg (who
is affiliated with Temple
Emanu-El and Temple Israel)
to discuss the progress and
challenges of getting gun vio-
lence prevention legislation
to the floor in Lansing.
Legislators in the Michigan
State House and Senate re-in-
troduced bills this year that
promote common sense gun
laws. Wittenberg, co-founder
and chair of the Gun Violence
Prevention Caucus in the
Michigan House, this year
proposed “Red Flag” laws
(keeping guns out of the
hands of people who pose an
extreme risk), finding more money for local
gun-buy-back days, implementing universal
background checks and ending the prohibi-
tion on gun violence research.
Wittenberg began serving in the State
House in 2015 and formed the caucus with
Jon Hoadley (D-Kalamazoo) in 2016. Now
in his last term in office, he hopes to pass the
torch to his colleague Manoogian.
“
After the Sandy Hook shooting, I won-
Jeff Kasky
Rep. Robert
Wittenberg
LARRY LIPTON
Rep. Mary
Manoogian
LARRY LIPTON
“When you are a high schooler
and you hear on the news how many
mass shootings there are, it’
s always
in the back of your mind if your
school will be next.”
— MADISON STRACHAN
March for Our Lives protest,
Detroit River Downtown, 2018
STACY GITTLEMAN