The local chapter of Moms Demand Action is pushing for lawmakers to pass what they call common sense gun legislation. About a handful of the group's members were outside the Tippecanoe County Courthouse noon Friday, holding signs and raising awareness.
Chapter co-leader Delphina Schley says they don’t want to take away anyone’s right under the Second Amendment.
“The First Amendment, which is freedom of speech and expression, does not give us the right to express ourselves in any manner we see fit,” she says. “Just as the Second Amendment was not created in order for people to have, basically, weapons of mass destruction in a gun cabinet or not in a gun cabinet.”
Delphina says Congress needs to pass a universal background check for gun purchases and an assault weapons ban. She’s glad the Indiana House decided to remove a provision for armed teachers and principals in its school safety bill this week.
“The founding fathers could not have possibly envisioned the type of weapons that we have today, when they wrote that Second Amendment. And I just don’t believe that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to be a blanket to allow everyone to just do what they want with their firearms.”
She says the mass killing of students and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, last December showed her it’s dangerous to send your children to school.
Members of the group are urging other moms to join them or to call their member of Congress about the gun bills being considered.