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Million Mom March

Million Mom March refers to the largest demonstration ever held in favor of stricter gun control legislation and to the national organization that formed in its wake. The event, held on Mother's Day of 2000 in Washington, D.C., drew hundreds of thousands of participants, primarily mothers. Organizers subsequently formed a chapter-based association, which in 2001 merged with a group that has led the fight for gun control in the United States since the 1980s—the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Now some 75 chapters strong, Million Mom March draws heavily on maternalist rhetoric; members generally portray themselves as “ordinary moms” seeking to “protect American children.”

Rooted in Outrage

The emergence of Million Mom March reflected outrage over a series of gun-related incidents in which young children and teens were harmed or killed. In August 1999, Donna Dees-Thomases, a New Jersey publicist with connections to the Democratic Party, reacted with horror to televised reports about a shooting at a Jewish Community Center preschool in Granada Hills, California. The incident hit home in part because her own two young daughters attended a similar facility. It also occurred only four months after the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, which killed 12 students and a teacher and left 23 others wounded. While the Columbine shooting generated a flurry of legislative activity, proponents of gun ownership rights had succeeded in blocking new gun control measures. Dees-Thomases applied for a permit to march in Washington and began contacting friends. “This started in my family room and has grown to a mantra across the nation,” she told a reporter nine months later, as thousands of women gathered in Washington, D.C. “There is nothing more powerful than a mother's drive to protect her children.”

The event, emceed by talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, drew a large crowd and received extensive press coverage. (Estimates ranged widely, with supporters of the March claiming as many as 750,000 participants.) Rallying around the slogan, “sensible gun laws, safe kids,” the marchers demanded such measures as trigger locks on all handgun sales and a national system that would require all handguns to be registered and licensed. This approach reflected a significant shift within the gun control movement, as political scientist Kristin Goss has shown: whereas gun control advocates from the 1960s through the 1990s typically emphasized the need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, by the late 1990s, they had begun to reframe the issue as a question of child protection. Once gun violence had been redefined in this manner—as a question of public safety rather than crime prevention—it became easier for gun control advocates to build a broad-based, grassroots movement in support of their agenda.

Angry Moms

In presenting themselves as angry and aggrieved mothers, Million Mom March emulated contemporary groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, while also recalling a much older tradition of maternalist activism dating back to the 19th century. Although this maternalist orientation clearly accounts for much of the group's popular appeal, it has also drawn criticism, particularly from feminists. The philosopher Patrice di Quinzio, for instance, criticizes the group's maternalist strategy on the grounds that it calls into question women's claims to rational autonomy and thus undercuts their quest for equal citizenship. She points to the ways in which members of Million Mom March frequently downplay their professional achievements in order to claim moral authority as “ordinary moms.” Moreover, she notes that the focus on children tends to obscure the fact that women themselves are often victims, and that minorities suffer disproportionately high rates of gun violence. For these and other reasons, some commentators harbor reservations about Million Mom March, even while supporting its ultimate goals.

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