Gun safety forum set for Sunday

Updated: January 17, 2013 3:05PM

WILMETTE — One of the organizers of a Sunday forum on gun and public safety said this w eek that the group wants to provide space for real conversation on those issues.

The free forum, “Guns and Public Safety: Where We Stand After Sandy Hook,” is organized by the New Trier Democrats and scheduled for 2 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Wilmette Public Library, 1242 Wilmette Ave.

Presenters include Mark Walsh of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, Lee Goodman of the Stop Concealed Carry Coalition and Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins of the Million Moms March. 

Topics will include school shootings, assault weapons, concealed carry, background checks, gun registration and licensing. The discussion will cover recent gun shootings, the use of gun statistics and new about gun safety issues in the courts, legislatures and in communities.

Wilmette resident Judy Mandel is membership chairman for the New Trier Democrats. She said she expected that gun use advocates would attend the meeting. She emphasized that Sunday’s event will be educational: “We’re not talking about gun control, we’re talking gun safety.”

Organizers have planned an open forum after the presentations, and want the ensuing conversation to be open to all sides, she said.

“We know this is of interest to people in our community, and we really don’t want people coming in to drown out one side of the debate so that only one message gets heard,” Mandel said. “We’re hoping to have enough people there to have a conversation, not shouting.”

Mandel said plans were already in the works for a gun safety presentation in early December, shortly after a federal court threw out Illinois’ concealed-carry ban.

After the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, “We really wanted to put the presentation together,” she said

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