CHANUTE — Before Sharon Miller addresses a crowd, she relies on three things to boost her confidence.
• Speak up, even if your voice shakes.
“For the first 2 years and 9 months, everything I’ve done, I’ve shook through it,” said Miller.
• Lose forward.
“My dream was that this room was going to be full. But even if there are only three people here, I’m not losing, I’m planting seeds and getting the word out.”
• Keep on message.
This was never about restricting guns. It’s about gun safety.
The difference is huge, Miller said, especially when influential gun lobbyists are quick to attack anything they perceive as a threat to gun ownership.
Miller’s three-point strategy comes from the book “Fight Like a Mother,” written by Shannon Watts, in the aftermath of the 2012 Newtown, Conn., tragedy where 20 six- and seven-year-olds and six teachers were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Watts went on to found Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which has become a national movement and is now under the umbrella of Everytown for Gun Safety.
Miller is hoping to organize an SEK chapter, to add to Kansas’ other 11 chapters.
WEDNESDAY evening’s meager turnout in Chanute had Miller down, but not out.
She pulled up the quote by anthropologist Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Miller recognizes the challenges of rural counties, where gun ownership is more prevalent.
Fifty-nine percent of rural households include guns, compared to 28% of urban and 40% of suburban households.
Of particular concern to Miller is the increased rate of suicide in America due to guns. In 2017, six in 10 gun-related deaths in the U.S. were by suicide.
Miller fights to keep her voice steady.
“This is the first time I’ve told this story in public,” she said, and begins to tell the story of a 15-year-old boy named Reed, the son of Miller’s best friend, who with no warning committed suicide last year.
A star student and athlete, Reed opened the family’s gun safe one evening when home alone.
In their search for clues, police could find no evidence of emotional trauma, Miller said.
