Community Corner

Domestic Gun Violence Awareness Rally Sunday in Montclair

New Jersey chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America planning event in Watchung Plaza.

The New Jersey chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America will participate in a rally on Sunday, Oct. 27 in Watchung Plaza in Montclair at 2 p.m.

The non-partisan, non-profit group has launched a national domestic gun violence awareness campaign in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Featured speakers will include Cynthia Walker, founder of S.O.F.I.A., a Montclair-based non-profit organization that provides advocacy and support for victims of domestic violence.

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“We must utilize our most powerful weapons to defend ourselves, and that is our MINDS,” said Walker. “Guns in the home not only put ourselves in danger, but our children as well.”

Moms Demand Action is partnering with the Violence Policy Center (VPC) to promote its report, When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2011 Homicide Data.  According to the new report:
  • Firearms — especially handguns — were the most common weapon used by males to murder females in 2011.
  • Of the females killed with a firearm, nearly two-thirds were murdered by male intimates.
  • The number of females shot and killed by their husband or intimate acquaintance (489 victims) was more than five times higher than the total number murdered by male strangers using all weapons combined (92 victims) in single victim/single offender incidents in 2011.
  • New Jersey has seen at least six domestic violence gun-related deaths in 2013.

“We are asking Congress to protect women from domestic abusers by immediately enacting common-sense reforms that will help keep guns out of dangerous hands,” said Mandi Perlmutter, chapter leader of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America – New Jersey Chapter. 

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Perlmutter said, “Across this country, it is far too easy for an abuser or someone with a domestic violence conviction to get ahold of a gun without a background check. We urgently need better national policies that protect women and their families from this senseless violence. No American, adult or child, should live in a perpetual state of fear. It’s inhumane.”

As part of the domestic gun violence awareness campaign, Moms Demand Action is encouraging moms to create and decorate a number “9” to represent the nine women who lose their lives each week to domestic gun violence. The “9” will be sent electronically and delivered in-person to members of Congress. Learn more at momsdemandaction.org/domestic-gun-violence.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America follows the model of Mothers Against Drunk Driving while working to build support for gun reforms.


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