By Darren DaRonco, Arizona Daily Star
A group of moms is taking its strollers to the streets today to protest a state law prohibiting cities from banning firearms on public transportation.
Tucson Moms Demand Action, a branch of a national group which advocates for tighter gun control laws, will be holding “stroller jams” on Sun Tran buses as a way to ask the Legislature to give local municipalities control over who can and who can’t bring a gun on a city bus.
“(Tucson’s) done a lot of other common sense solutions, … but we can’t do this one,” Tucson chapter leader Jocelyn Strauss said. “It’s not fair for the state to dictate to cities what they can do.”
The protest stems from an incident about a month ago when a man boarded a Sun Tran bus with a loaded AR-15 and sat with his finger near the trigger while he waited for his stop.
Strauss said she was appalled after hearing the news that someone could just carry a firearm in a menacing way on a bus and neither the city nor Sun Tran could do anything about it.
“I think, especially in Tucson after the Jan. 8 shooting, a lot of us are really leery of a situation like that,” Strauss said. “It (looked) terrifying, and I would have taken my kids right off the bus.”