Chesterfield mom turned activist hosts community event for gun reform
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Schools across Central Virginia have seen over a dozen threats to the safety of students and staff since the start of the school year -- it's why this Chesterfield mom is organizing a gun reform concert for Sunday Oct. 5. "When my younger son was a brand new baby -- he's now 12 years old, he's in middle school --he laughed for the first time the day that Sandy Hook happened," said organizer Kat Oros. "And I am very upset to say very little has changed since then.” Oros organized the event with her friend Betsy Podsialdo, with the nonpartisan group Moms Demand Action. “There are 4.6 million children in our country who live in homes with unsafely stored guns, and over 90% of Americans support red flag laws," Oros said. "So this is something that we can all come together on. It is not a partisan issue. It is simply an issue of being safe when you go out in public.” The event will be held on Oct. 5 at 4 p.m. at Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond. "The first day that I was in their pews, I noticed that they toll a bell every Monday for the different victims of gun violence in our city, for the number of people who have died in this year so far," Oros said. "And I thought, there's a reason I'm here.” The event will feature live music from bands and a choir, as well as featuring a keynote speaker whose son was a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting. Oros said her main goal with this event is to start a conversation around gun safety and violence, as a gun owner herself, she said she believes it's an important topic to talk about. "It's on us, though, as parents, because we all know that children do not have fully developed frontal lobes, and they do crazy stuff -- they're impulsive, they don't think," she said. " I just think that we need to normalize having a conversation when your kids go to someone's house for the first time just to say, 'Do you have any firearms at your home, and are they safely stored?'" More information about the event can be found here.
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Schools across Central Virginia have seen over a dozen threats to the safety of students and staff since the start of the school year -- it's why this Chesterfield mom is organizing a gun reform concert for Sunday Oct. 5.
"When my younger son was a brand new baby -- he's now 12 years old, he's in middle school --he laughed for the first time the day that Sandy Hook happened," said organizer Kat Oros. "And I am very upset to say very little has changed since then.”
Oros organized the event with her friend Betsy Podsialdo, with the nonpartisan group Moms Demand Action.
“There are 4.6 million children in our country who live in homes with unsafely stored guns, and over 90% of Americans support red flag laws," Oros said. "So this is something that we can all come together on. It is not a partisan issue. It is simply an issue of being safe when you go out in public.”
The event will be held on Oct. 5 at 4 p.m. at Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond.
"The first day that I was in their pews, I noticed that they toll a bell every Monday for the different victims of gun violence in our city, for the number of people who have died in this year so far," Oros said. "And I thought, there's a reason I'm here.”
The event will feature live music from bands and a choir, as well as featuring a keynote speaker whose son was a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting.
Oros said her main goal with this event is to start a conversation around gun safety and violence, as a gun owner herself, she said she believes it's an important topic to talk about.
"It's on us, though, as parents, because we all know that children do not have fully developed frontal lobes, and they do crazy stuff -- they're impulsive, they don't think," she said. " I just think that we need to normalize having a conversation when your kids go to someone's house for the first time just to say, 'Do you have any firearms at your home, and are they safely stored?'"
More information about the event can be found here.
