Moms Demand Action fights for 'Red Flag' law and against 'Constitutional Carry' at Capitol
AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - Hundreds of Moms Demand Action advocates from all over Texas marched to the capitol steps Wednesday morning for a group photo before taking their fight for gun safety and common sense gun laws inside.
"We are playing some offense and some defense," said Nicole Golden with Moms Demand Action.
Also under the dome Wednesday, a different group of moms: moms like Second Amendment advocate Susan Dantzler. "The folks that would like to take our guns are planning to be here and I'm like 'No we're going to kind of be here too,'" she said.
Dantzler called it "Women’s Gun Day."
"My Dad was murdered when I was 21 years old. So rather than 'cry me a river of tears, I hate guns..' –- No, I want guns. I want more guns, I don't want anyone else to feel what I felt," Dantzler said.
Golden says they're pushing lawmakers to support "red flag" legislation. "'Red flag laws' would allow family members to work with law enforcement to have guns temporarily removed from a loved one who is showing some warning signs," Golden said.
"It circumvents due process, and I'm hearing way too much about the court system is too slow so we've got to go ahead and take guns now and deal with due process later," Dantzler said.
A couple of sessions ago, the legislature passed the open carry of handguns. This time gun advocates are hoping to take that a step further. There's a "Constitutional Carry" bill filed in the House that would eliminate the requirement that gun-owners get a permit to carry.
"We beat it last session in 2017, it did not pass," Golden said.
"We already have a permit. That's the Second Amendment and basically what the State of Texas is doing is taxing us for that right okay? It's revenue," Dantzler said.
"That undermines public safety. There's a permitting system in place in Texas that gives us some sense of security that someone carrying a gun in public has had some training, is licensed to do so," Golden said.
Moms Demand Action's Diana Earl from Austin says she lost her son in a shooting. She spoke out against arming more teachers. "I feel teachers are paid and employed to take care of students and teach students, not to be armed guards. We know law enforcement is trained to do that and they know how to de-escalate," Earl said.
"I want them to have more training but you don't take guns out of the schools when kids are being murdered right and left," Dantzler said.
As the one-year anniversary of the Parkland shooting approaches, Golden has a reminder:
"It's easy for people to forget that these are people's loved ones, these are people's lives. A speaker spoke earlier about how you miss every birthday, every anniversary, every milestone when you lose someone to gun violence," Golden said.
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