COATESVILLE – Community members and local activists met with 6th District Democratic congressional candidate Chrissy Houlahan and former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords, D-Ariz. for an anti-gun violence roundtable discussion at the New Life in Christ Fellowship church Friday afternoon.
Houlahan and Giffords were joined by Giffords’ husband, former astronaut and retired Navy Captain Mark Kelly, and Dan Helmer, an Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran and vice chair of VoteVets, a political action committee that supports veterans’ interests.
Houlahan, who is a retired Air Force captain, said fighting gun violence has been a key issue in her campaign for Congress, and she can bring a unique perspective as a veteran.
She said she supports policies such as universal background checks, closing the gun show loophole, keeping guns away from domestic abusers, allowing the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence and reinstating a ban on assault weapons.
Weapons of war don’t belong in the hands of civilians, she said.
Houlahan is running against Republican candidate Greg McCauley, an attorney, for the congressional seat being vacated by retiring Republican Rep. Ryan Costello.
Helmer asked participants in the discussion to share their experiences of how gun violence has affected their lives and those they know. He said the first time he lost someone to gun violence was when a friend and fellow soldier was shot and killed while serving in Iraq, but he could take solace in the fact they knew what they signed up for. However, he said Americans shouldn’t accept gun violence as a part of daily life.
“We shouldn’t accept having a war zone here in our streets and our classrooms,” he said.
Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011 in which she was shot in the head during an outdoor town hall-style gathering, encouraged voters to take action at the ballot box this November by voting for candidates who will fight for gun reform.
She said Americans are living through scary times with racism, sexism, lies and violence, but people must stand up for what they believe in.
“Do you have the courage to fight?” she asked. “Stand with me. Vote, vote, vote!
“On Election Day, your voice matters. Please join your voice with mine.”
Kelly said partisanship has gotten worse in government, but Giffords was a representative who could work in the middle, and he believes Houlahan will also be someone who can work with both sides to get things done.
Veterans are natural problem-solvers, he said.
Giffords and Kelly currently operate a political action committee, called Giffords, that supports candidates and elected officials in favor of gun reform.
Kelly said their organization is bipartisan, and is supporting both Democrats and Republicans throughout the county who seek gun reform.
Dan Williams, pastor of New Life in Christ Fellowship, and a Democratic candidate for state representative in the 74th District, said gun violence affects the lives of many young people here in the city of Coatesville, but he noted that a majority of gun owners and non-gun-owners support regulations on guns. Williams is running against Republican candidate Amber Little-Turner.
Michelle Roberson of Westtown told the story of how her 18-year-old daughter, Bianca Roberson, was shot and killed last year in a road rage incident after she had recently graduated high school. Her killer pleaded guilty to third-degree murder earlier this week. She said a brief second of anger led to her daughter’s death since the killer happened to have a gun with him.
She said she is pushing people to get out and vote, and she believes young people will make a difference, and hopefully the new generation can correct mistakes where older generations messed up.
“We can’t just do nothing,” she said.
Coatesville Police Sgt. Rodger Ollis said he basically wears a gun on his person all the time, but he realizes it’s a huge responsibility, and he believes in responsibility when handling guns.
Two Henderson High School students also spoke about their experiences with gun violence.
Before moving to the West Chester area, Taylor Turner had lived in Florida, and was previously a freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which was the site of a mass shooting in February in which a gunman killed 17 students and staff. One of the victims, 17-year-old Helena Ramsay, was a friend of Turner’s.
Taylor said she got more involved in politics after that, and she attended the March For Our Lives demonstration in Washington, D.C. to call for tighter gun laws, and she also canvassed for Houlahan.
She said students are afraid at schools, and talked about how fire alarms during a recent fire drill led students to fear there may be an active shooter at the school.
“We shouldn’t have to be scared in our schools … we shouldn’t have to be afraid to go outside,” she said.
Taylor won’t be old enough to vote in this year’s election, but she said many high school students are getting registered to vote, and the issue of gun violence has brought a lot of kids to get involved in politics that normally wouldn’t.
Camille Parkinson, a classmate of Turner’s, said her family has been impacted by gun violence, and she was also acquainted with Bianca Roberson.
“Being safe in school is a human right, but it’s being taken away,” she said.
Parkinson said she won’t be old enough to vote this year, but she also canvassed for Houlahan.
“Our generation is ready to fight to get the laws changed,” she said. “Gun violence affects everybody.”
Members of local anti-gun violence groups Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Gun Sense Chester County were also present to speak out on the issue.
According to statistics provided by Giffords: 1,467 people are killed by guns in Pennsylvania every year, which is one death every six hours; the annual cost of gun violence in the state is $8.5 billion or $665 per resident.
Houlahan said she wants to bring a sense of hope to this issue, and many veterans who are running this cycle want to make a difference in fighting gun violence.
“I’m really excited about the possibility of making a difference on an issue that I think is pretty commonly held as something that we can affect change on,” she said.
“At this point if you look at some of the common-sense things that we’re talking about doing, whether it’s closing loopholes, whether it’s background checks, whether it’s basic research, I think those are relatively speaking universally accepted as being reasonable approaches to a problem that’s increasingly worrisome, particularly violence against our children.”
