Millburn Middle School to Host National, Local Experts at Gun Safety Forum

A panel of nationally known and local experts will participate in the Millburn community’s first-ever forum on firearm safety, to be held Tuesday evening, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. at Millburn Middle School. Millburn Middle School is located at 25 Old Short Hills Rd., in Millburn.

Update: Two additional speakers have been added to the line up for the Oct. 14 forum.

Bill Sherlach - Mr. Sherlach’s wife was a guidance counselor at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct and was killed during the tragic mass shooting there in December 2012

Tom McDermott - was wounded in the Long Island Rail Road massacre in December 1993, which resulted in 6 people killed and 19 wounded before the gunman was stopped by 3 passengers aboard the train.

Information about gun safety and solutions to keep the community safe from unsecured weapons will be the focus of the evening. The forum is nonpartisan and aimed at starting a discussion on the proper way to store guns and ammunition in the home.

The panel presentation will also address the township’s procedures to handle gun threats in the schools, how to approach neighbors and children’s friends’ parents about guns in the home, and local resources available to dispose of guns or report potential problems.

The panel will include Robert V. Tessaro, the founder and president of Safe School Technologies and a recognized expert on youth violence prevention, and Salvatore Simeone, a matrimonial attorney and expert on domestic violence. Other panelists will be announced shortly.

In addition, Mila Jasey (D) and John McKeon (D), NJ state assembly representatives from the 27th Legislative District, plan to attend the event. Assemblyman McKeon sponsored a bill that passed earlier this month creating a permanent series of gun buybacks in New Jersey.

Dr. James Crisfield, superintendent of schools in the Millburn school district, will attend and be available to address specific questions regarding safety procedures in the Millburn schools. Members of the Millburn High School Gun Violence Prevention club, founded this year by an MHS junior, will also be in attendance.

Tessaro is the former director of law enforcement relations of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Prior to that he was executive director of the NJ Association of School Resource Officers, where he worked to support the passage of New Jersey’s Safe School Resource Officer law. Tessaro also served on the attorney general’s Police Training Commission Curriculum Committee.

Simeone, a partner at Weiner Lesniak LLC, has handled numerous high-conflict divorce and custody cases, primarily in Morris County and northern New Jersey, since 1994. He is an expert in New Jersey law regarding firearms in the homes of domestic abusers.

The idea of a community forum was initiated and will be funded by township resident Peter Feinberg after learning of a steep rise in applications for gun permits in the township. The Millburn Gun Safety Forum committee consists of Millburn Township residents and founders of the original Million Mom March who want the community to learn about gun safety to prevent senseless violence.

“I’m hoping for a lively and educational forum that will help our town prevent gun tragedies,” Feinberg said.

For further information and to RSVP, please contact: millburngunsafetyforum@gmail.com

Information courtesy of Leah Perchick