Gun-control advocates rally in Phoenix for Whatever It Takes Day of Action

A small group of gun-law advocates rallied Thursday in front of Sen. Jeff Flake's Phoenix office to demand reforms that tighten background checks on gun purchases.

The group was part of the nationwide "Whatever It Takes Day of Action," highlighted by a Washington, D.C., rally to urge Congress to enact laws designed to reduce gun violence.

In Phoenix, roughly 20 people -- some of them members of the Arizona chapter of Moms Demand Action -- took to Flake's office at 22nd Street and Camelback Road.

The group targeted Flake’s office because the Arizona senator voted against gun-control legislation a month after writing a letter to the family of one of the victims in the 2012 massacre at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

“The violence is from firearms,” said Betsy Sherman, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action. “It’s senseless, erratic and random.”

While the rally took place outside Flake's Phoenix office, the senator was in a Washington D.C. meeting with gun-control advocates from Arizona for #WhateverItTakes Day of Action, said Jason Samuels, the communications director for Flake.

The meeting included Caren Teves from Moms Demand Action and her husband, Tom, as well as lobbyist Bob Marsh and Patricia Maisch, a constituent from Tucson who survived the January 2011 shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

Deborah Parker, who lost her teenage daughter Lindsey Key to gun violence in 2006, said loopholes in gun laws played a role in some high-profile killings recently, including the June 17 mass shooting at a historic Black church in South Carolina that left nine people dead.

“Not one more person should be buried after a shooting,” Parker said.

Sherman said she and other advocates do not want to take guns away from people, but want laws that require more thorough background checks on gun purchases.

Sherman said the latest gun-control push started when Andy Parker used the hashtag “#WhateverItTakes” on social media to push for gun-control efforts after his daughter, TV journalist Alison Parker, was gunned down on air in Virginia on Aug. 26. Gun-violence survivors, elected officials, gun-violence prevention advocates and supporters joined Parker in Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning.

Sherman and other advocates note that 88 Americans are killed every day and nearly 200 others are injured every day in incidents involving firearms.

Another member of Moms Demand Action, Caren Teves, lost her son Alexander in the Aurora mass shooting. It was Teves who petitioned Flake, asking him to close the loopholes in gun laws and to strengthen background checks.

Teves and her group were countered by one dissenter. Dr. Peter Steinmetz, a member of Arizona Citizens Defense League, opposed efforts to enact more firearms legislation.

Steinmetz said the efforts would be ineffective if people aren't able to acquire guns for protection.

The nationwide rallies Thursday came exactly 1,000 days after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 26 people, most of them children. Suzanne McCormick, a leader of the Arizona chapter of Moms Demand Action, said the group has helped close legislative loopholes in gun laws in six states since then.