Another Million Moms

In the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, Shannon Watts has started a group called One Million Moms for Gun Control. Despite the similarity in names, they’re not affiliated with the 2000-member Million Mom March.

Watts wants to portray her group as the gun-control equivalent of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. If that were true, I’d be sending them a check myself.

MADD was instrumental in cutting drunk-driving deaths by a third. They had the right idea, and they got measurable results. Though the mission changed in later years, MADD succeeded at first through a singular purity of purpose: they sought to reduce carnage by punishing the behavior responsible. They didn’t seek to lower speed limits, tax alcohol, or restrict ownership of cars.

Their agenda worked. The standard for impairment was reduced, the penalties were increased, and the laws were enforced. Responsible drivers felt no adverse effect from the group’s efforts. If anything, we enjoy a net benefit in that our drive home is safer tonight.

If that’s the approach someone wants to take to gun violence, I’m all for it. Let’s actually put the teeth back in Project Exile. Atlanta has a sister program called FACE 5, which you’ve never heard of because it’s rarely been used. I’m to understand it’s been invoked less than 40 times since inception. Straw purchases of firearms are supposed to be punishable by ten years in prison, but the most common sentence actually handed down is less than half of that. In one case, 22 counts resulted in a 46-month sentence.

We have the means to reduce gun violence, but we’re not using them. Instead, we’re told we need to accept further restrictions on the law-abiding. That’s the polar opposite of the organization Watts claims to emulate.