The June meeting minutes were approved at the August meeting. See below. The next meeting will be held on 9/12/13 at 7:00 p.m. at First Parish Church, 50 School Street, Bridgewater. All are welcome. Gun Violence-Free Communities Meeting Minutes 6-18-2013 Present: Andy Bettencourt, Pearl Cohen, Karen Cruz, Sonia D’Alarcao, Betty Gilson, Marilee Kenney Hunt, David Page, Richard Pessin Welcome and introductions: Introductions were made. Review of minutes: The 5-14-2013 meeting minutes were approved without edits. Approved minutes will be posted on the GVFC FaceBook page. Prior Business- Reports from last meeting’s tasks: • Betty Gilson reported that she wrote a letter to Dr. Kern (local pediatrician) that was delivered on 6/13/13 in which she requested a meeting with him to assist the GVFC in drafting a letter to area pediatricians about adopting AAP guidelines for talking to parents about gun safety. Betty will call Dr. Kern on 6/20/2013 to follow up. • Sonia D’Alarcao reported that the American Academy of Pediatrics does not have any brochures on their website related to their new initiative/guidelines for pediatricians speaking to parents about gun safety. There were a couple of tip sheets available which were shared with the group. • Marilee Kenney Hunt reported that Mass Medical has two brochures related to this topic: Myths & Facts and Protecting Your Child From Gun Injury. Both brochures were shared with the group. The content of the Myths & Facts brochure was called into question noting that it appeared slanted in its presentation. The Protecting Your Child From Gun Injury brochure was unanimously agreed upon as an appropriate resource that GVFC would like to share with area pediatricians. Marilee will look into the cost of purchase for a volume of these brochures. • Karen Cruz reported that she spoke to Lisa Mitton, School Resources Officer who responded that she doesn’t participate in education efforts. Karen also spoke to a school nurse who responded that they have had programs on suicide prevention. Karen has put a call in to Jacqueline Forbes, Superintendent of B-R schools. Karen suggests that perhaps a PTO would be an appropriate group to speak with and offer assistance to in any of their current or future efforts on this topic. Karen also spoke to the police department who noted that they did have pamphlets but could not find any. The Chief of Police contacted Karen later and stated that they were ordering new ones and they will call her when they come in. • Marilee Kenney Hunt’s report regarding suicide prevention materials has been tabled until the next meeting. • Pearl Cohen’s report regarding Colorado gun laws has been tabled until the next meeting. • Betty Gilson reported that the GVFC FaceBook logo was changed, based on a decision made at the last meeting. The logo formerly depicted a gun with a twisted barrel. This is the new logo: • Public Hearings regarding gun laws: The group agreed that as many members as possible who could attend the next public hearing for Massachusetts residents to testify regarding Gun Safety, Laws and Violence to the General Court’s Joint Committee on Public Safety. We could perhaps even wear some sort of common identifier (a sticker or button?). Marilee Kenney Hunt agreed to draft preliminary written testimony that would be brief and would talk about who we are, our inclusive nature, our goals, local impact and possible actions. Members of the group will add to and revise her draft. Sonia D’Alarcao agreed to present the testimony (if no one else is interested in doing so) provided that she is available on the hearing date. Marilee agreed to find out the date for the upcoming hearing in Worcester. NOTE SINCE MEETING: The hearing date for Worcester was originally scheduled for June 26 but has been postponed to July/August date TBD. Upcoming hearing dates are: • Middleton - Tuesday July 23 (time & location TBA) • Springfield - Friday August 2 (American International College, Time TBA) • Worcester - July/August (TBA) - Rescheduled from June 26th • Boston - Early September (Boston State House) Sharing from Children’s Safety Network Webinar: Sonia D’Alarcao and Marilee Kenney Hunt shared the highlights from the webinar. The link to the recorded webinar was previously emailed to the group. Some highlights that were shared include: • 1/3 of households have at least one gun. Of households that have gun(s) and have children in the home 22% store guns loaded and 32% are unlocked. • Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws are laws that focus on storing guns so that young children can not gain easy access to them. 18 states and the District of Columbia have CAP laws. Massachusetts is one of the states with CAP laws. CAP laws do result in fewer unintentional gun deaths ages 0-14 and fewer suicides among teens ages 14-17. Where CAP laws impose federal penalties they are more effective. • Safer gun design options include: o Loader Chamber Indicator (LCI) which tells if a pistol is loaded. California and Massachusetts have LCI laws. o Personalized or “smart” guns operate only for authorized users. These appear to be just beginning to be developed and are not yet widely available. • Various conflict mediation/violence interruption programs were presented in the webinar. While typically very successful, these are the most work intensive and costly methods of preventing death and injuries. • Two approached that appear NOT to work are o Guy buy back (turn-in) programs. They do raise some public awareness but do not effectively get guns out of the hands of illegal or irresponsible gun owners. The GVFC was considering this type of program but given this information has currently decided to discontinue exploration of this option. o Teaching children to be safe around guns. Again this is something that the GVFC had been considering (i.e. “pledge cards” for children). In light of this information, the group felt that educating parents through pediatricians or schools was a better way to effect change then to target children directly for education. • In Florida they did not allow physicians to ask patients if there were guns in the home. However this law was ruled unconstitutional due to 1st amendment rights. Similar bills have been introduced in other states. Additional ways to address access: The group felt that this agenda item had already been thoroughly discussed in the other agenda topics. Other Business: Other discussions that emerged during the meeting include: • Pearl Cohen raised the question as to why gun manufacturers aren’t held to a strict liability if it is possible to child proof guns. • Andy Bettencourt noted that there are some types of guns that can not be purchased in Massachusetts because they don’t meet Massachusetts safety standards. • Marilee Kenney Hunt suggested that GVFC have a table to distribute information (i.e. our mission statement and the Protecting Your Child From Gun Injury brochure at local events. The group felt that the Fourth of July was too soon, but that Autumnfest seemed like a reasonable option. • Rick Pessin suggested that on FaceBook we post profiles of different members of GVFC noting our various opinions as a way to show the diverse and inclusive nature of the group. • The issue of funding was raised. How will we pay for the Protecting Your Child From Gun Injury brochures and any fees needed to secure an information table at Autumnfest? Ideas included personal contributions (such as dues) or some low-key fund raising. Also, the GVFC could request having a table of the property of First Parish Church instead of paying a fee. The group decided this topic needs more discussion. Discussion should continue via email as it can’t wait until the next meeting. Next Meeting: Thursday August 8, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, Upper Parish Hall, Bridgewater, MA Minutes respectfully submitted by Sonia D’Alarcao, Secretary
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 23:57:23 +0000
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