Gun Guys

“Ask” is the word in Rockford, Illinois this week. PAX stopped by there with their “Asking Saves Kids” campaign, where they remind parents sending their child to a friend’s house to ask whether a gun will be present or not.

Maybe you’ll see the Rockford Mass Transit District bus with the green sign telling Rockfordians to ask.

Or catch one of the videos playing at places such as Crusader Clinic that say the same thing.

“Ask what?” you might ask yourself. That’s precisely the kind of thing organizers of Rockford’s latest anti-violence program hope you do.

They hope the word sticks in your mind and that the next time you send your child over to a friend’s home to play, you ask the friend’s parents whether they have a gun in their home.

Just like you’d ask whether the parents would be home, or what types of movies they’ll be watching.

“We’re nonpolitical,” said Daniel Gross, CEO and co-founder of New York-based PAX, which runs the Asking Saves Kids campaign. Gross joined Mayor Larry Morrissey and several public health and safety officials for a Wednesday morning news conference at City Hall.

“We just want parents to ask if there are guns in the house and if they are locked and unloaded. It’s not a comment on who should or who should not have a gun.”

How do you keep kids away from the threat of gun violence? Keep them away from guns. If an ask is all it takes to make you (or the other parents) think about whether your kids are playing in a house where a gun might be available, then you’re that much closer to saving their lives. PAX is fighting a battle of awareness here, and if the success of their campaign is any indication, they’re winning.

Rockford Deputy Police Chief Greg Lindmark said that of the 57 gun incidents this year, 13.2 percent involved minors.

“When I first heard of this I asked why we didn’t think of this,” Lindmark said. “Then I wanted to know when we could get started.”

Morrissey said the ASK campaign joins others in Rockford, like CeaseFire, aimed at reducing gun violence and that are “designed to change social norms, course of conduct and habits.”

“As we know all too well, in Rockford, Illinois, there is far too much violence, and if we’re not careful, we become lulled into accepting violence as a norm,” he said. “It’s not a norm.”

The local television station has another piece up that basically says the same thing. Awareness is the key, and by reminding people to ask about the presence of a firearm, PAX is working to raise that awareness.

“The ASK Campaign joins other campaigns like Ceasefire, and truly working in the trenches, working each and every day to change norms of conduct in Rockford, Illinois,” says Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey.

“We beat the drum for the last two years here, trying to mobilize the community around the problems of gun violence, so it’s really refreshing to see another group raising up in Rockford to address these issues,” says Ralph Hawthorne of Rockford Ceasefire.

On Wednesday, people began signing the pledge on the side of a city bus.

Now, whether you sign a pledge or not, the statistics already show that having a gun around wherever kids live and play is trouble. The campaign tells parents to ask if the gun is locked or unloaded, but as we’ve seen time and time again, even that is no obstacle for most children. We wish the ASK campaign lots of luck– if their work can make even one parent think twice about sending their children to a house where guns are kept, it will be well worth it.