Southwest Florida activist parents working to prevent gun violence

As the school year wraps up, students in our area as young as 10 get arrested for mass shooting threats and families bury their children in Uvalde, Texas, leaders with the Southwest Florida chapter of Moms Demand Action are trying to make sure nothing similar to that massacre happens here.

In 2020, guns killed more people ages 1 to 19 in the U.S. than vehicle crashes, drug overdoses or cancer. Kathleen Muniz, with Moms Demand Action of Southwest Florida, says Columbine was the first inkling she had that something was drastically wrong in America. Now, she and other members are meeting with state and local leaders to push for policy change.

Muniz says that with more than 2,000 children and teens dying from gun homicide every year, everyone in Southwest Florida—and specifically Lee and Collier counties—should be figuring out what they can do to help with this crisis.

“When things like this happen, how can you do nothing? You have to do something,” Muniz said. “Let me just be very clear that Everytown and Moms Demand Action is going to be vetting all the candidates, all the way down through school board, and we have some elections coming up. Those candidates can expect to get our survey.”

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