Morris moms bring gun safety concerns to Rep. Frelinghuysen

By Kevin Coughlin

Most people don’t welcome failing grades.  But a group of gun safety advocates who gathered at Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen’s office on Tuesday are pushing their congressman to earn a big fat F from the National Rifle Association.

So far, he’s rated a “D” from the powerful pro-gun lobby.

Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) could secure his F by changing his opposition to an assault weapons ban and by supporting universal background checks, said Leslie Moran of Moms Demand Action of the Morris Area.

“We would like to see Rep. Frelinghuysen move in a truly moderate direction on gun safety, instead of moving in lockstep with the Republican majority,” said Moran, a Randolph grandmother who organized the event that she estimated drew about 40 women to the congressman’s Morristown office.

Members of the National Council of Jewish Women and the National Organization for Women were among those who lodged concerns with Frelinghuysen’s staff. 

Frelinghuysen, who is running for his 12th term in a largely Republican district, was not present.He issued a statement afterward.

“The House of Representatives recently passed, with strong bipartisan support, my Defense Appropriations bill which funds America’s fight against global terrorism.  No one is more committed to protecting Americans at home and abroad than I am,” Frelinghuysen said.

“Nobody wants terrorists to have firearms.  Nobody.  But clearly something was missed that allowed this homegrown, radicalized monster to execute his plot in Orlando.  Potential failures need to be identified and corrected,” the congressman said.

But terrorism was not the primary issue voiced by many of the women on Tuesday.

“I’m outraged about what’s going on in this country concerning guns,” said Linda Baum, an East Hanover resident and member of the National Council of Jewish Women.  “After Newtown, I thought, why does  anybody not in the military need an assault rifle?”

Susan Hubbard, an author and instructor at the County College of Morris, said she is incensed by the ritual of classroom lockdown drills.

“This is no way to live,” said Hubbard, wearing an orange “Moms Demand Action” t-shirt. Orange is the color of a national gun control campaign that honors the memory of a Chicago teen gunned down one week after she performed for President Obama with her high school band.

Hubbard said it’s hard to fathom how persons considered too dangerous to fly on commercial airlines can be allowed to purchase guns. She shudders to think what might have happened if one of her students had been armed during an emotional outburst in class.

“This idea that the GOP supports, that teachers and professors should go into classrooms armed to protect themselves from students is insane,” Hubbard said.

“I write to Congressman Frelinghuysen all the time, and never get a response. I’m not a wing nut. I’m a college professor. I don’t have anything against hunting, or owning guns if you’re a responsible human being… It’s not Muslims I’m afraid of. It’s crazy people with guns.”

Thea Lintern, a grandmother of six from Morristown, grew discouraged after the 2012 murder of schoolchildren and teachers in Newtown, CT.  This month’s massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando spurred her to renew her activism.

“If 20 little children [killed in Newtown] didn’t change our thinking on guns, what will?  Orlando put everything in the forefront again,” Lintern said.

No civilian needs an assault weapon, which is designed solely “to kill people,” said  Vicki Stapleton of the New Jersey N.O.W. chapter.

“We don’t live in pioneer days,” she said.

Marian Mundey of Mendham dictated a message to a Frelinghuysen staffer: “Don’t be bullied by the N.R.A. I trust you to do the right thing.”

“I want to safely walk around my college campus,” said Madeline Rosenfeld, a 21-year-old student from Livingston. She said she opposes loopholes that allow ownership of “any gun that shoots over 50 bullets a minute.”

Valerie Pipoli of Randolph brought her daughter Johanna, 13, and son Michael, 10, to Frelinghuysen’s office, she said, to underscore her fears for their safety.  She is not impressed by the response of elected officials.

“After Newtown, they said, ‘Let’s pray on this.’  All they want to do is pray. And praying is not doing anything,” Pipoli said. “Every time something happens, they say, ‘This is not the time to discuss it.’ This is exactly the time to discuss it.”

Moran, the event organizer, said 91 people die every day from gunshots. Two-thirds are suicides; a majority of the dead are youths, she said.

The retired school psychologist is intimately acquainted with the devastation of gun violence. She was friends with the mother of Erin Nieswand, a student from Long Valley who was shot dead at Cornell University in 1983 by a rifle-toting man obsessed with Erin’s roommate.