[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelley. Shelley is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And Danielle is a community mobilizer and change maker. And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat. Right. Thanks so much for both of you joining us today. If you could just start by introducing yourself. So a name and pronouns and just a bit about who you are.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so my name is Erin Dowd. My pronouns are she, her, hers. I am a Medford resident. I'm a mom. I have a almost six-year-old kindergartner, and I'm a licensed clinical social worker. I have a private practice, and I'm a member of Mom's Demand Action for Dumptown for America, and I am the lead for the local Medford team.
[Danielle Balocca]: Oh, thank you. So we're going to talk a lot more about that role with moms to moms demand action today. But first we have a question that's sort of just our theme for the podcast, which is if you could share with us your favorite place to eat in Medford and what you like to eat there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's a lot of good places, but I live very close to Snappy Patties and I think was there on opening day. And so we eat there a lot. And the chicken schnitzel sandwich to me is like one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. It's so good. So that's like my favorite thing. Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: We hear about Snappy Patties a lot, but I have never heard of that sandwich. So thanks for.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's probably within the last two years they've had it on the menu and it's hard for me to order anything else going in there. It's really weird. Yeah. Great.
[Danielle Balocca]: All right. So I think we're here to talk about, hear more about what you do with Moms Demand Action. And so if you could tell us like a little bit about the organization, that'd be great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Yeah, so Moms Demand Action is, the full name is Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and it's the largest in America, the largest grassroots volunteer network working to end gun violence. It's a part of Everytown for Gun Safety, which is the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country. It's got about 10 million supporters. And Moms Demand Action was started by Shannon Watts, after Sandy Hook. She was a mom who just created a Facebook page basically wanting to connect with other people, feeling like you have to do something about gun violence. And just to be clear, you don't have to be a mom to join Moms in Action. You don't have to identify as a woman to join Moms in Action. Anybody can join, but that's the name because originally I see it was a group of moms. And MomTag 700 local groups across the country and a chapter in every state. So we have a really strong chapter in Massachusetts that I'm a part of. I joined in 2018, actually my sister one day, I think there was a shooting, like another mass shooting that had happened. And my sister asked me, do you want to go to this meeting? And it was great when I was feeling kind of hopeless and not sure, wanting to do something and not sure what to do. And I've kind of been involved in different ways ever since. Yeah. So, right now I'm on the public education team, and I'm the lead for the Medford local team. And just to kind of talk about what mom does, there's a few things mom does. They focus on, mom's main action focus is on legislative advocacy. So the goal is kind of how to help pass gun sense legislation locally and nationally, how to elect what we call gun sense candidates, so candidates who are committed to working on and promoting legislation around preventing gun violence. And a big part of long man mentioned a lot of what we've been doing at Medford is public education around around procure storage of guns and how that can actually stay live and around how to have conversations in general about guns and gun safety. So mom's working on public education specifically around secure storage of firearms, red flag log, which we do have one in Massachusetts, and how to just normalize the conversation, talking about guns and the reality of guns. And I'll talk more about that with this specific program called Be Smart. which is a public education program. And then the other thing the management does is partnering with community organizations. There's a lot of great organizations that already do violence prevention in communities and a big part of it is trying to amplify those voices and help them get grants and work together.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah, can you speak a little bit about who are your stakeholders and partners and maybe how you've come to build those relationships and what the sort of interaction looks like a big part of what moms does is partnering with community organizations and advocating for funding.
[SPEAKER_02]: Past legislative cycle, we lost demand action was successful in helping to advocate. There was two programs in particular that received increased funding, a safe and successful youth initiative program and an employment for youth at risk. And these are programs that identify and invest in young people at the highest risk of being involved in violence and providing network support. So it's not only looking at gun violence around guns, actual guns, but how to support communities that are the most negatively impacted, disproportionately impacted by gun violence too.
[Chelli Keshavan]: I guess I have a two part question. Maybe I think while you're speaking, I'm wondering about how the organization discusses like the culture of violence or the reasons for sort of under the. systemic reasons, I think for a lot of better word of why violence is touching families. And then I appreciate it earlier, you mentioned that one of the largest portions of the work is really education based. And I was just wondering, like, is that happening with adult spaces, admin schools, community spaces? Yeah. So all of the above, you know, thank you. I know they're big questions.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, just to speak to, you know, which I haven't said yet, it's just the kind of really alarming statistics around gun violence in the United States, which I think we feel, as we all know, but when you hear them, they're pretty shocking. So, as of 2020, guns are now the leading cause of death in children and teens. That's new before there had been a real accident. So, you know, that's in itself huge. It's the number one killer of children and teens. And in the United States, we average 110 to 115 firearm-related deaths per day. So another way of saying that is that in 2020, someone was killed with a gun every 12 minutes. crisis very overwhelming crisis right it's huge and for every fire alarm related death there's actually two to three times the number of injury sure and you know the other thing is there are more gun belts there than ever there was a third in buying guns with the pandemic, both nationally and actually in Massachusetts. And that started in 2020 and it continued into 2021. In Massachusetts, more than 275,000 guns were sold in 2020 and 2021. That was a 25% increase. Wow. Compared to the year before the pandemic. And, you know, like we said, gun violence disproportionately impacts communities of color in Massachusetts. Black children and teens are eight times more likely to die by guns in Massachusetts than their white peers. And actually in Massachusetts, the majority of our gun deaths are suicide. 56% of gun deaths are suicide. So that's a huge issue for us here. And just the cost of firearm injuries, it costs our state $1.8 billion every year, and $92.2 million of that is paid by taxpayers. So this information, just for people to know, Everytown for Gun Safety, which is kind of the umbrella organization that Mom's been part of, has all of these facts on every state. So if you go to their website, everytown.org, you can find all this information. But it's pretty, it's pretty shocking. It's such a part of our lives here.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Yeah, to that point, what are your thoughts on sort of, I don't know if desensitize is a correct way to say this, but like when we hear about sort of larger violent episodes, folks are in their feelings for a day or two and then general life comes back and how to, what are your thoughts on like sort of getting past that space and having people be able to buy into supporting the cause? Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's hard because Those are the, a lot of times those events like a mass shooting or school shooting are what gets people involved. And moms do not actually, and we're happy for that. You know, we're happy to have people come be involved. Of course, we're not happy about the shooting, but the reality is that's about 1% of gun deaths in the United States. You know, people are dying more often from suicide, from unintentional gun deaths, from homicide. And so, yeah, our, What I like about mom demand action is that we're always there, you know, like every it's every day and when people like something happens and people want to come join their welcome and there's people who are just every day committed to doing this work.
[Chelli Keshavan]: yeah I mean so. And so, honestly, I love this Shannon Watts sort of conversation because when Sandy Hook happened, I thought to myself, we're losing first graders at Christmas and we're not seeing change. Then does change really come? Like the NRA feeling is such an incredible monolith. So the energy that it takes to sort of continue to shift the culture on this must be monumental. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the commitment. Yes. And, you know, having this, this national legislation, you know, that's passed around gun violence was huge. You know, it wasn't everything that everybody wanted, but the fact that it kind of ended this log jam of years and years of, they're not seeing any ability to do this on a national level. So, you know, Shayna wants to kind of say that it's like drops of water on a rock. you know, that eventually creates a canyon, but it takes a really long time. Yeah. And, you know, what mom demand action is just kind of step by step on all levels. So in Medford, that's kind of what we've been focusing on is like, you know, we, instead of sometimes it can feel hopeless when you're waiting for there to be big change. And one thing that has been really helpful to me in working with Mom In Action locally is there are things we can do right now in our own communities to prevent gun violence, to prevent deaths from guns. And so that is what we've been working on. And we've done a lot. A big part of that is public education. So moms demand action have a program called be smart it's called be smart if you go to be smart for kids.org and this is like this wonderful really I think anybody can get behind once they learn about it program that is a framework for how to have conversations and help parents and adults manalize the conversations about gun safety and to take responsible actions to prevent child's gun deaths and injuries. This is for adults. It's not to educate children about guns. It's about the idea that adults are responsible for keeping kids safe. And it's for gun owners and non-gun owners alike. It's all about, number one, secure storage. Massachusetts actually has very great, strict, strong, secure storage laws around how firearms have to be stored. And so part of it is just making the public aware of their legal obligations around gun storage. And also, how do we have conversations about guns? How do you ask when your kids are going to a play date to somebody's house? Sure. Do you own firearms?
[Unidentified]: Do you own guns? And if you do, how are they?
[SPEAKER_02]: I know that if you're not, and that there are more guns, I think, out there than people really realize. And the great thing about Be Smart is it has examples of how to have these conversations, like how to, when you're asking about, you know, when your kids go into somebody's house, do you have a pool? Do you have pet? You know, are there limits on screen time? Is there going to be an adult there? You also ask. You know, do you own a firearm and if you do how is it stored and my experience in doing that personally if people are always receptive to this question and are grateful that it's being asked. And if they're not, I would want to know that. I would want to know, you know, if somebody did own a gun and they didn't really want to tell me how it was stored, I think I would want to move the play dates to a park or have them at our house. So a big part of this is how do we in Medford just start having this conversation a little more and get people thinking about that and get reminding the gun owners that are in Medford around about the life-saving impact of secure storage.
[Chelli Keshavan]: So your beautiful segways, when you interacted with Medford, I was wondering what the reception to something like Be Smart has been in Medford. And if, if moms has a culture of sort of saying like, this is who we are, this is what we're doing, or is there more of like a best fit discussion with cities and towns right now?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the, you know, the beef program is actually almost universally well received because the message is, we all want kids to grow up healthy and safe. Right. And so whether you're gun owner or not, you agree with that, you know, nobody wants kids to be killed, unintentionally killed or injured by a gun. Especially gun owners, I think they don't want their gun to be the one that is going to hurt somebody. So we've had a great response. We have, just to speak to Medford specifically, we have met with the mayor and we have met with the police chief, Chief Buckley, and they are both very supportive of this idea as a public safety and have been supportive of us spreading this message. Um, we've tables, so we've had a be smart table with information at the Medford farming market, at the MSN family concerts, the national night out that the police department did. We had a table there. And so people in general, the most people are, especially the parents are saying, Oh my gosh, they never thought of that. Like, yes, I want to ask about that. And we've had conversations with gun owners, many of them who are supportive and appreciative of the secure storage laws and the reminders of them. And we've had conversations with people who are thinking about buying guns, and that's really helpful to just give them information about how important secure storage is. And also that Massachusetts has pretty strict laws around secure storage. So it's been a really great experience. And another exciting thing that's happening is One thing that Moms Demand Action has worked towards in many communities across the country and in Massachusetts is passing what's called the secure storage notification resolution. And this is something that directs the school administration to inform parents caregivers and the broader school community on a regular basis so nearly about the life-saving effects of secure firearm storage and parents legal responsibilities to follow Massachusetts secure firearm storage laws and just raising awareness like this is one of the evidence-based solutions to prevent school shootings and other tragedies so this is really an idea that the school administration is in a perfect position to give information to parents about this public health issue, just like they do other public health issues, right? Our kids get information about fire safety and mental health and, you know, given that guns are now the number one cause of death for children and teens, this is really important too. And so this is something I've been working on with other Medford Moms Demand Action volunteers over the past year, in particular with Melanie McLaughlin, who is a school committee member, And on Monday, September 12th, Melanie put forward a motion for them to vote on this. So number one, I want to invite people. I don't know if this is going to air.
[Danielle Balocca]: We'll put it out before then, but we'll be able to look out for that. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. So hopefully my, our hope is that this will pass. We did a presentation about this for some school committee members and they were very supportive. You know, when you see the statistics around this and how secure storage can actually save lives. It's really kind of a no-brainer that we would want our community, our families to have this information. And so we're really hopeful that that's going to pass. You know, the secure storage is obviously helpful in preventing unintentional deaths. 80% of school shootings, the person who, the person who committed the school shooting got the gun or the firearm from a family member or friend. So that, you know, secure storage could have helped with that. And then across suicide attempt, all suicide attempts without a gun, only 4% actually involved in death. But when a gun is involved, it's 90%. So just a huge faster in the lethality around suicide. So, you know, preventing access from that, from kids, especially kids and contorium culture, you know, it's so it's life saving. It's really important. Yeah. Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: And I think you you make some great points about how I think that we talked a little bit earlier about, like, kind of the helplessness around gun violence and that, like when we hear about a school shooting and it makes it sounds like there are some great action steps that that you all are taking. And I wonder if you could share how other folks who might not already be involved in moms could get involved.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, we would love this. So mom is always welcoming new members, anyone can join at any time. And there's a lot of ways to get involved. So number one, if anyone wants to just join Moms Demand Action, you can just text the number, text the word join to 64433. and then you'll be sent, they'll text you back with a link and you can join. You can also go to momdemandaction.org and there's a way to click take action and you can join. So that's a great way to just get to kind of connect with moms and then you'll be in the ID. you'll join nationally but then the Massachusetts chapter is notified when people join and so you'll get information. You can be texted when there's an action you can take and then you can also learn about your local group. So we do have a local group in Medford And we are always welcoming new members. We've had a lot of people joining, especially since what happened to the Ocean Union Wild Day. There was obviously a lot of interest and a lot of people joined our group, which has been great. We are going to have a membership meeting on October 16th at 3.30 in Edsford. Hopefully we'll have it outdoors where they're permitting. And this is a great opportunity to kind of come and get a feel for what a meeting is like. Usually we try to have a speaker, someone who can speak to either being a survivor of gun violence, or just somebody who has particular knowledge about it. And we also like to try to take action at a meeting, doing something specific. It's election season, so there's going to be a lot people can help with if moms demand action around elections. And one of the great things about MOMS that I found being a member for years is that you can be as involved as you want. You know, you can just do a little thing here or there. You could volunteer to send out some text. You could volunteer to do postcarding. all the way up to, you know, being a local group leader or being on one of the teams, like a public education team or the legislative team. There's something for everybody. So I would say if anybody's a little bit interested to just join. And it's been great in Medford particularly, because I get to know a lot of other people and make connections and We have a leadership team we formed, so myself and four other people who have taken our leadership roles, and you know, we've done a lot. So it's been a really good experience, so I'd encourage anyone to join. And if people want to join our Medford team specifically, they can email me at erindowd, so E-R-I-N-D-O-W-D dot M-A at Gmail, and I can give them all the information about our team and our meetings.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks, and thanks for like making yourself so accessible for as a resource for all of this. I do have one question, one more that like I'm wondering like if there's been a highlight for you. So I feel like this could be kind of like heavy work to do. I wonder like, yeah, has there been like a highlight for you or something that kind of like keeps you hooked?
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I think the The gains we've been able to make in Medford, we've met with the police chief, like I said, and the mayor. We have actually started to work on having a partnership with the Department of Health in Medford around how do we promote secure storage and how do we normalize the conversation around gun safety as part of public health in Medford and everyone has been receptive. You know, we really haven't had anybody who has been negative or given us a hard time. You know, what we're talking about is not radical. We're just congesting and, you know, providing the evidence that there are things that we can do right now that are saving lives. And I think those of us committed feel like if we can save the life of one person, you know, especially one child, through this work, we have the obligation to do it. And these are numbers that we're actually not going to see, you know, like, we don't know that, we're not going to know that somebody's securely storing their firearm, you know, prevented an unintentional death, but that's okay. Like, I believe that it's happening. And so I think every time that we do a table or we do a presentation and people are so receptive, people really appreciate the work, they start thinking about it in a way that maybe they hadn't before, especially non-gun owners. You know, to me, that's really fulfilling and it kind of keeps me going.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you. Yeah. So is there anything that we haven't asked that you think, you know, people might want to know about before we wrap up today?
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say for people, especially in this, especially in this election season, if people are interested in finding out candidates stance around gun violence and supporting legislation to prevent gun violence, Moms Demand Connection has kind of credential they'll give some candidates called a Gun Sense Candidate, which basically means that they are supporting legislation or want to act to prevent gun violence. So there's a website called GunSenseVoter.org, which is a good resource for people to check and see, you know, before they vote. And that's another, it's another benefit of being a member of Bomb Command Action is you can, and especially here, that kind of information that they'll make sure that the members know who is the gun sense candidate and who isn't. So that's been really helpful. And I think that's it.
[Danielle Balocca]: Well, thank you so much. I think thanks for all your time. And this was, this was like really helpful for me, I think. I remember hearing a question I think at the pediatrician like bringing up that point about like asking about families if they you know if they own guns and all those things and that that really surprised me it was something that like was a little bit scary so I appreciate all the context and that that's something that you know a basic part of the education that you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah it's something we can all do and I love the idea that if it's parents in Medford, if we're all kind of decided we're going to do that, but maybe it won't feel so awkward or weird to ask these questions. I just did it the other day at a play date and the parent was really receptive to it, you know, and appreciated me asking. So I think it can feel a little odd at first, but once we start doing it and use these resources like the Be Smart for Kids, then I think it's something that will feel left out and can kind of just be part of the normal conversation. Yeah.
[Chelli Keshavan]: Thank you so much, Erin. It was really good to be here.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Casherman. Music is made by Hendrik Idonis. We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. You can reach out to us by email at medfordpod at gmail.com, or you can rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites!