My partner and I headed Downtown Sunday to march and rally for rational gun regulation. We joined with other councilmembers, the mayor, a few state legislators, at least one school board member, various clergy and a couple of thousand regular people who believe we are a better society than what we’ve seen on our televisions. Washington CeaseFire, local churches and others organized the event following the mass killing of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.
Yesterday the Washington State Legislature opened its annual session and many of us are hoping the cumulative effects of Sandy Hook, Aurora, Tucson, Fort Hood and other tragic locales will spur action in our state (and in the nation overall) to put reasonable constraints on ownership of assault weapons and large-volume ammunition clips, as well as meaningful education and background check requirements. This march was about rational gun regulation, but I don’t think you’d find a person who doesn’t also believe we need a more rational approach to mental health treatment.
A few pictures from Sunday: 
Getting ready to march to Seattle Center. Lots of buttons and signs with the graphic above.
Dogs for rational gun regulation.
This was a relatively short march with a great number of people, but we’re just at the beginning. We need to be bigger, more diverse and louder. And we need to get into conversations with people who disagree with us. We need to listen, discuss, debate, listen some more and push. And we need to be open to learning as we go without losing sight of our goals. Changing gun laws and changing the culture of normalcy around guns and violence will take a lot.