Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense Rallies at Statehouse

A group of mothers from across the state rallied outside the Statehouse on Saturday morning in support of gun control legislation.

The women were part of the South Carolina branch of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a group created in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting in December.

Nationally, the group has already amassed more than 70,000 members.

Erin Dando of Greenville leads the South Carolina chapter. She has three children under the age of 10 and has been building a grassroots network for the last two months.

“I knew that gun violence plagues our nation every day, but it didn’t really hit home until after Sandy Hook.”

Dando knows that in South Carolina, a strong 2^nd Amendment state, changing gun laws will not be easy. But she’s optimistic. “The more people I talk to the more I see we can all agree that gun violence must stop,” she said. “It’s a marathon not a sprint.”

Also attending the rally was Gina Richards. She has four children—three girls and a boy. The girls attend Ashley Hall School where a woman named Alice Boland pointed a gun at teachers last month. Richards daughters were among the students who were kept in lockdown inside the school.

The incident spurred Richards to get involved. “It was horrifying and it could have been much worse,” Richards said. “Had the laws of this state been tighter Alice Boland would not have been able to get a gun.”

Richards is an advocate for the legislation that Rep. Leon Stavrinakis (D - Charleston) and Attorney General Alan Wilson have put their support behind.

Like Dando, Richards knows her fight has just begun, “It’s going to be a long haul, but that’s ok.”

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