Palmetto Progressives Interview Series Part 3 of 5: Meghan Trezies

Meghan Trezies is one of the founders of Arm-in-Arm South Carolina which formed following the Mother Emanuel AME church shooting in June of 2015. The organization exists to prevent gun violence by advocating for laws that would require background checks before every gun purchase and addresses gun violence as a public health crisis instead of a political issue. They are a sophisticated group with over 1,200 members, making them one of the largest political organizations in South Carolina. I wanted to interview Meghan because of her influence in the gun reform community to get an idea of the state of the campaign for gun reform in South Carolina.

            Without further ado, here is the interview:

By the time this interview is published the town hall being held tomorrow (the town hall was held on July 26th) at MUSC concerning gun violence will have already happened. What is the purpose of this meeting and what role can MUSC play in the fight to curb gun violence?

�The purpose of the town hall is really an opportunity, obviously gun violence is a public health crisis, it�s a crisis and not just an issue and MUSC has really taken up the mantel on this in a number of ways. They have seen the amount of gun violence in Charleston rise sharply over the past couple of years. So, we are working together to educate people and find ways for people in the medical industry to really be involved in this and to make a difference. It�s really important for the medical industry to have a big role in this.

            If we approach this as a public health issue, we can be really effective with it. If you look at things like seatbelts, drunk driving, and smoking, it is multipronged when approached as a public health crisis. It�s about awareness and it�s about what you can do to change it through results from research. So, we�ve been working closely with MUSC to bring light to some of this discussion and to figure out ways for the medical industry to be more involved and more effective in reaching out to patients.�

What prompted you to become a gun control activist?

�I always call myself the �accidental activist� because it�s not my background. My background is in marketing and communications, primarily in the tourism industry. I went to Colgate University up in New York and a classmate of mine lost a child in Sandy Hook and that affected me deeply because I had kids at the time. When the shooting here happened, I could not imagine the pain that the families were going through and I had that gut reaction of, �This is my community. This is my town. I want to do all I can to prevent this from happening again.�

            I kept thinking about Jennifer Pinckney�s experience and locking her husband�s office door and being trapped in there with her daughter and I couldn�t stop thinking about that. So, I jumped in and realized what was possible in terms of legislation and what a tremendous tool universal background checks are. We keep talking about this in our partisan corners without talking about real specifics or what�s possible. Once I realized it was a communication issue, I decided to jump in. Thankfully a bunch of really bright people jumped in with me and we started this group and it steamrolled. We thought it would be a small legislative group but it blossomed and now we have over a thousand advocates.�

Arm-in-Arm is very independent from other groups dedicated to gun reform such as the Brady Campaign. What is the reason for this independence?

            �It�s important that South Carolinians have their own voice in this. I grew up in a gun-owning family and my father shot skeet competitively. There�s a heritage to gun ownership and hunting in South Carolina that may be different from other places. When you have gun owners and hunters together with medical professionals and victim�s families calling for specific common ground legislation, it�s different than what everybody has seen before. There�s a value to those voices and it�s important that we remain independent.�

Trezies alongside a co-founder of Arm-in-Arm, Peter Zalka

You�ve been in this fight since 2015 and you have seen Parkland and the response to what happened there. What effect has it had on the effort to implement gun reform nationwide? Has it moved the ball down the field or have the spectators simply gotten louder?

            �It�s tremendous. It�s a cosmic shift in the gun violence conversation because it really normalized the conversation and more people have jumped in and are aware of the issues. And for adults to hear kids saying to them, �You�ve got to stop having this conversation in the same partisan way,� I think it really shifted the perspective. I think there are more people in favor of reform now and I think that was incredibly important. What has happened since and the advocacy since has kept it in the spotlight."

Legislatively, at what point will your organization be satisfied with what is passed in Columbia? Is there a point where the pressure will diminish on lawmakers?

�Universal background checks. We have thirty years of pretty good data that shows that universal background checks will make a difference on the rate of deaths by guns in South Carolina and in the country. We also know that in enacting universal background checks it has an effect on guns moving from state to state from other areas. We know that this is the single most important tool that we have to reduce gun violence. When we have that, it will be monumental.

            Every year organizations like the Brady group release report cards that grades each state. For example, when the mental health law passed here we earned one point on their report card. If you pass universal background checks in your state you are awarded twelve points. That is how much more valuable that piece is than anything else. We know it works.�

What�s been your biggest success either legislatively or a particular event that Arm-in-Arm has held since you became an activist?

�During the first year we had so many people throughout the state who were so emotionally impacted by the shooting here in Charleston. We had an event called �Stand Up Sunday� and we had thousands of people from various congregations across the state that stood up and talked about gun violence on Sunday during church. That was an incredibly important piece of what we have done.

            Another thing that we do year after year is push back hard on frightening legislation that would increase gun violence in South Carolina. We have to do that every year. We�ve also done awareness events throughout the state which is a big piece as well. It is a multipronged effect.�

What is your message to young people who are not registered to vote and don�t care about politics and what is happening in our country right now?

�My message them would be �follow your heart and get involved.� It is amazing the impact that just a few people can have. What we thought would just be a ripple has turned into a wave here in South Carolina. It all starts with just a few people. It�s incredibly important that people get involved. Simple conversations with family and friends can shift the tide of this discussion.�