"Your Voice Can Make a Difference"; Interview with Gun Control Movement Leader, Erick Bellomy

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people!” This tone-deaf and ignorant phrase was imprinted on the t-shirt of a middle schooler I saw in the grocery store today. Although jarring, this shirt is deeply reflective of the general apathy towards the gun violence epidemic. In the United States, and especially in my home state of Ohio, people take the protection of their god-given right to carry five automatic rifles strapped across their back to the public park very seriously (I’m only halfway joking). However when we consider shocking statistics that state that Americans are 25x times more likely to be killed in a gun homicide than a citizen in any other developed nation, and the fact that the U.S. accounts for 4% of the world population but 35% of global firearm suicides, it's clear that America has a gun problem (Statistics). How can common sense gun legislation ever be passed in a nation where a loud minority champions their right to own military-grade weapons over their neighbors’ right to life (Saric)?

Erick Bellomy ll and his fellow partners at Brady United work tirelessly to create an America where students feel safe in their schools, children feel safe in their households, and everyone feels safe in their community. The mission of Brady United is to ensure that gun violence decreases by 25% by the year 2025. Although ambitious, their website outlines clear steps widely supported by the majority of Americans such as universal background checks, restricting the commercial use of military-grade weapons, and the prohibition of ghost guns (United Against). Bellomy is the current state lead for the Ohio branch of the Brady Campaign, and a strong advocate for protecting our homes, schools, and communities from gun violence. Bellomy recently joined me for an interview, in which he discussed some of the most heated questions regarding the gun debate:

Transcript

Tess Rosler: Hello my name is Tess Rosler and I am interviewing Erick Bellomy on behalf of Project Patriarchy which is a non-profit organization designed to promote and encourage youth in politics. I’d love for you to take a moment to introduce yourself, who you are, and what you do, and also explain the Brady United Against Gun Violence Project and what you do there.

Erick Bellomy ll: My name is Erick Bellomy Jr and I am currently the state lead for Brady Ohio, which is one of the ninety chapters of the Brady Project. I am joining the Brady Campaign as one of the board of directors in D.C. for a two-year term. I am a survivor of gun violence; I lost my father to gun violence in 2017 in Columbus Ohio, and I joined the gun violence prevention movement soon after that [...]. Then in 2020 I joined the Brady Campaign, in 2021 I became the state lead, and I’ve been doing a bunch of different things since then. The Brady Campaign is mostly made up of lawyers, 90% of our staff is lawyers, we work on policy both at the state level and the federal level. We work on both sides of the political spectrum, with Republicans and Democrats to bring forward common-sense legislation that prevents gun violence. We also work against bills that actually endanger anyone in the country, like stand your ground bills, permitless carry, and things like that. Brady is very focused on making sure that we get teen involvement in our “Teen ENOUGH '' spectrum of things, and then we also have “End Family Fire”, which is our gun safety and safe storage side of Brady. We also have Brady PAC, which is our PAC that endorses candidates running for office that actually work towards gun violence prevention.

Tess: That’s perfect, so going off of the last part, Brady PAC, have there been any specific politicians in the state of Ohio that you’ve endorsed recently?

Erick: Yeah, so recently we have endorsed Tim Ryan for senate, he is currently a representative for us at the federal level. We also endorsed former Dayton mayor Nan Whaley for governor against Mike DeWine. We also have endorsed two other candidates [...]

In fact, the Brady PAC has endorsed 152 candidates (and counting) across dozens of federal and state elections across the county. At the federal level in the state of Ohio, Brady PAC has endorsed Joyce Beatty, Shontel Brown, Marcy Kaptur, Greg Landsman, Tim Ryan, and Emilia Sykes. The organization reiterates the desire to support any candidate who is willing to pass comprehensive gun legislation regardless of party (United Against).

Tess: Okay, that’s fantastic, thank you.

Erick: You’re welcome.

Tess: Biden recently signed his bipartisan gun deal into law, however a lot of people are concerned about the provisions in this law and the fact that [...] they don’t do enough to combat gun violence. How do you feel about President Biden’s action thus far regarding the gun violence crisis and do you believe he is doing enough?

Erick: Policy is really hard in the United States currently, so this is the biggest legislation that we’ve seen in thirty years when it comes to gun violence prevention. Of course, we don’t think that it goes far enough when it comes to gun violence prevention, but it is the right step in the right direction. You know, we think that more needs to be done. It does provide funding for states that want to implement red flag laws and things like that, but there could be more. [...] We have to have a congress that works with us so we need to make sure that we are electing those people in congress that are willing to vote for the legislation we need to prevent gun violence [...]. If we don’t have those types of folks in office, President Biden really can’t do anything, because we need that side of the political spectrum to kind of help us move things forward. We do have the assault weapons ban, you know President Biden when he was senator did push that. We did have the assault weapons ban, which expired after ten years, and right now that’s what we’re pushing for. We’re pushing for that again, and we’re hoping that the senate will take up and vote for that. It did pass in the house, there are things in the works. We need to work on these midterms and try to get those folks elected so we can do more.

As of now, democrats do not appear to have the necessary votes to pass their historic assault weapons ban. Although party leaders hope to wrangle votes from retiring republicans, they continue to face opposition from members of their own party including Henry Cuellar (Texas) and Jared Golden (Maine). Several corporate democrats have attempted to conceal their own connections to the gun lobby by citing concerns with the language of the bill as reasons for their opposition.

Tess: So it’s really like a take what you can get situation?

Erick: Exactly. Take what you can get until you can take what you actually want. By electing those folks that are willing to take their constituents’ lives over money, because at the end of the day when it comes down to the gun lobby, it’s all about money money money money, and we need to elect people who actually care about their constituents and the lives of children.

“We need to elect people who actually care about their constituents and the lives of children.”

Tess: Piggybacking right off of that, one of the reasons that there is so much difficulty passing this legislation is because politicians are being paid off by the gun lobby. Looking at my notes here, in our home state of Ohio, Rob Portman, Jon Boehmer, David Boyce, and many other representatives are being paid thousands by the gun lobby every year. What do you feel is the best way to deal with gun money being so entrenched in U.S. politics?

In Ohio alone, the U.S. gun lobby bribed both federal and state representatives with money totaling $580,000 (Seth A. Richardson). The fact that our representatives continue to neglect the facts in favor of corporate cash is indicative of their character and leadership abilities.

Erick: We need to take money out of politics period. That is a sentence that has echoed across the country. It’s unfortunate that this type of situation is political, you know, lives should not be political. Lives should be above all else, about life. This issue is a pro-life issue, quote-unquote, and we have politicians who are accepting money from the same people that are killing us. We have the Buckeye Firearms Association, the Ohio Gun Owners Association, here in Ohio [...]. I wish I could be the person that makes the executive order, or whatever the case may be, passes the legislation that takes money out of campaigns and politics, but at the end of the day we need a legislator that does that and it’s crazy because you really don’t understand how much money is involved [...] in these crazy gun lobbies. You really don’t realize it until you are actually involved. It’s amazing how much money is involved. Even paying the lobbyists to go out in the states, it's not even just our federal representatives. We need to focus on the state level, because yeah the federal level is bad, but a lot of the worst gun laws are passing through the state legislature [...].

Tess: That’s crazy.

Erick: So you know, we have to focus not just on the federal level but the state level, because it is even worse at the state level.

Tess: I feel like it just has to be such an uphill battle every day to know you’re going against people with millions of dollars to throw at this situation, and know that you have to face that.

Erick: Yeah. It is an uphill battle, but we keep going, we had a governor that was willing to veto these crazy bills, he was a Republican, John Kasich. Now we have a governor that just allows these bills to get pushed through. I mean we have a bill right now that was introduced [...] to implement red flag laws, safe storage, and we have a legislator that's not even willing to hear it. That just tells you where the special interests are.

Politicians across Ohio, and the country in general, seem to be saying one thing, yet doing another. For example, Ohio governor Mike DeWine has issued countless public statements asserting his supposed beliefs in meaningful gun reform, and yet with the stroke of a pen passes legislation such as Senate Bill 215 that allows concealed firearms to be carried without a permit, limits the training required to own a gun, and allows individuals to conceal weapons from the police (Abraham).

Tess: Yeah. Going off of Mike Dewine, and perhaps his poor decision-making regarding gun legislation: a few months ago he did make it legal and possible for Ohio school teachers to carry guns. Now of course this will probably have to go through different school administrations and there will be minor red tape, but this is quite alarming for a lot of Ohio students who see school shootings nearly daily. What are some ways that students could push back on efforts like this?

Erick: This legislation passed and it is actually up to the school administration. Pay close attention to your school board. Attend your school board meetings, have your parents attend PTAs, whatever the case may be, and whatever groups you can get involved in within your school that keep you focused on what your school’s future holds. The main thing is watching those board meetings, there are schools in Ohio that have armed teachers. This bill that passed wasn’t necessarily arming teachers, because that’s already been happening in Ohio that teachers can be armed. This bill that just passed actually lowers the requirements to eight hours of training.

Tess: Wow.

Erick: So teachers in Ohio could be armed already before this bill, it is just lowering those requirements. Now if you want to push back on your school and make sure that they are not arming their teachers, one attend those school board meetings, and two, push your school administration to put a policy forth saying that they will not arm their teachers. There have been school boards that have already announced that they will not arm their teachers, you can push your school to do the same.

Tess: That’s horrifying that eight hours of training can allow you to carry a gun on school campuses.

Erick: Maximum of twenty-three, minimum of eight.

Tess: Wow. So it’s evident that corruption has contributed to these extraordinary levels of gun violence. Acts such as the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” and the “Tiahrt Amendment” certainly aid in corruption. Could you discuss those, and what is the best way to repeal and push back against these pieces of legislation?

[...]

Erick: I mean, Brady, we actually go after gun manufacturers and those who make the ammunition. Most recently in the Uvalde shooting and also with the survivor of the Dayton mass shooting [...]. We also went against the manufacturer of the ammunition for the AR-15. We are still going after them currently. There are a lot of similar laws in the country and states that shield manufacturers, it also shields cities from doing anything when it comes to gun legislation. A city can't trump gun legislation, there is a lot of protection when it comes to guns across the country. It comes back to the gun lobby, it comes back to special interests. Honestly, we have to fight, keep fighting. We can do a lot at the federal level, but our state level is, I mean Ohio has become a supermajority so basically, Ohio is veto-proof. Our governor could veto some laws if we pass anything, and the supermajority could come back and basically say nope that’s law, you can’t really do anything. I just, when it comes to manufacturers, if those laws or those policies weren’t in place, we would see less manufacturing of the AR-15. Because they know they won’t be held accountable for the deaths that are happening across the country when it comes to school shootings, mall shootings, and things like that. So these manufacturers know that what they are doing is dangerous, that the guns they are putting out are guns of war that are not to be put in the hands of citizens. That’s why they have fought for the protection of not being civilly liable for the death of citizens. They know that that’s why they got that protection. It’s up to us to push back and fight back [...].

“These manufacturers know that what they are doing is dangerous… That’s why they have fought for the protection of not being civilly liable.”

Erick: We just need to get rid of those policies that do not allow these families to go after anyone that provides guns or ammunition to those who kill.

California governor Gavin Newsom was recently able to sign AB-1594 into law, a piece of legislation that allows gun and ammunition manufacturers across the state of California to be held liable for deaths and misuse of the weapons they produce. The bill utilized an exception to the federal statute the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which prevented countless individuals from seeking justice against gun manufacturers and sellers (California). The Brady Project hopes to encourage similar efforts across the nation, with the hope that arms dealers will face some semblance of accountability (United).

Tess: The Brady Project is also interested in [...] funding CDC research regarding the gun violence epidemic. Could you speak on how CDC research would help us better understand and react to this crisis?

Erick: Up until a year, two years ago, there was legislation, or a policy, that would not allow research on gun violence. We are just now able to research this epidemic. There were no grants allowed, federal grants, or anything allowed towards any type of research when it came to gun violence.

Tess: That is shocking.

In 1996 congress passed “The Dickey Amendment”, a disastrous piece of legislation that placed the federal government on a spending freeze regarding gun violence research. Jay Dickey, the Arkansas congressman who is credited for this amendment, deeply regretted his own efforts to push back on gun control methods. In 2015, Dickey confessed that he now believes strongly in funneling money towards CDC research projects regarding this epidemic. House Democrats have allocated a potential $50 million towards gun violence research, however, nothing can replace the twenty years of potential research lost (Subbaraman).

Erick: Now we are allowed, and there are grants now that allow the research. This gives you a look at the history of the person, the suspect. [...] Mental health, that’s another big one. It also helps research the types of guns that are being used in everyday shootings and the sales of these guns and where the guns are coming from, whether it's gun shows or pawn shops. It also helps you research background checks and things like that. It’s very new to everybody right now when it comes to research because this is new. I am very interested to see, it does take a long time to come up with results when it comes to research and things like that, and I am very interested to see the findings that come out when it comes to these situations that do cause gun violence. I think there needs to be more funding for Biden to research, for states, not just at the federal level but also at the state level.

Tess: Knowledge is power. Just being able to know and react to that.

Erick: Yep, and it’s not just Brady that can do this research. There are other organizations out there that can do the research. I know we just did a survey, I don’t actually have it with me but we did do a survey that had some pretty amazing data that showed different types of gun violence throughout the country. It’s very interesting to see it on paper. We really think that research is something that we need.

Tess: [...] Gun culture is such a massive problem in the United States. There seems to be this sort of attitude that if you go out and buy a gun you will be able to instill some sort of vigilante justice or be a hero with a gun. [...] This will most likely take decades of work, but what do you think is the best course of action for shifting the way Americans view guns?

Erick: That is a very good question. I want to say that folks dying should be the way to change people’s minds when it comes to guns, and children dying en masse. You would think that would change people’s minds and it just hasn’t. People like to use the second amendment as an excuse, but the second amendment was not made for what we’re seeing now. The mass shootings, Ar-15s, and things like that. I’ve thought about this, about how we can shift the minds of those who basically love their guns over everything else. I just think that it is impossible because there’s so much fake news out there about taking guns by passing common sense gun legislation. [...] When we try to pass a background check, we have the gun lobby telling people that we’re taking their guns away [...]. That energizes these folks more to believe that. [...]

Tess: It’s so sad that it almost takes someone you know personally to be affected by gun violence for someone to take it seriously. That is so unfortunate.

Erick: Funny that you say that. I did not know the impacts of gun violence, the epidemic Ohio had, or even the rest of the country had until my dad died. Last Thursday it was the three-year anniversary of the Dayton shooting, and the person that was there that actually stopped the shooting came up and talked about it [...]. This guy was pro-second amendment, he was a Republican. [He] had no idea what was going on in our country until [he] was involved in a mass shooting, and I was able to help save lives in thirty-two seconds because he was there and he was able. He came to the realization just on Thursday that he is a survivor of gun violence, he witnessed gun violence, and he saved potentially hundreds of people from being shot. It’s very eye-opening when it comes to that because a lot of people don’t care until it hits home.

“A lot of people don’t care until it hits home.”

Tess: I’m so sorry that you had to go through that. I feel for the many, many more people that will have to go through similar things until something can be done about this. I think especially when young people turn into conservative coverage, which is a general deflection from the real problem, I think they can feel very very discouraged because we are witnessing several mass shootings a day, and it feels like nobody is doing anything. I know the Brady Project has “Team ENOUGH”. Can you speak on the importance of grassroots efforts, on the importance of young people getting involved and pushing back in their own communities to stop this?

Erick: “Team ENOUGH” is the youth grassroots movement of the Brady Campaign. They work across high schools and colleges across the country. [...] Youth being involved is very important, youth are the next generation. They are the ones who are taking over for the people who, I hate to say it, put us in this predicament. It is very important we get them involved now so that we aren’t repeating history. We need folks that understand not just gun violence, but environmental [issues], and things like that. Youth are easy to teach. When it comes to an adult, they are set in their ways. They think that they already know what is right, or what they see is right. Right now, youth are the change makers that we see in this country. Look at “March for Our Lives”, they had over 850 marches across the country on one day after the Parkland shooting, and they continued their work after that. On many issues, not just gun violence. Just like “Team ENOUGH”, they are creating policies in their states. Youth are creating policy. Let me say that again, youth are creating policies that I wouldn’t have ever thought of as a kid. Creating policy that is passing in California. These are things that we need. Legislators listen to kids more than they listen to adults, and that’s why we need them involved. [...] They [the youth] get more done than we get done, and that’s why we need more involvement to create their youth chapter of “Team ENOUGH” or to create their own “March for Our Lives”, or their own “Students Demand Action” in their town. Youth is the next generation, the future. We need every youth that we can to get involved now so that we can change the future now.

Tess: That’s very inspiring to hear, about students creating policy and being listened to, and their input is taken into account when writing actual pieces of legislation.

Erick: I agree. I couldn’t believe it. When I started Brady, I was shocked that we saw literal high schoolers, and people just coming out of high school, making policy. It’s amazing to see.

When analyzing the gun violence epidemic as a whole, it can seem an impossible and daunting task to fight against lobbies, millionaires, and powerful politicians all working in their personal interests. However, if the Brady Campaign and Erick Bellomy ll can show us anything, it is that youth are the changemakers and the leaders of the next generation. By reaching out to your local school board, contacting your politicians, forming your own chapter of “Team ENOUGH”, and staying informed, you are able to use your voice to make a difference.