14 May 9 • 2019
jn

jews d
in 
the

continued from page 12

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

