Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse, the advocacy group that has been working diligently to get comprehensive gun-control legislation passed in Maryland, wants to create a youth group to take its message into schools and communities.
Members of the Baltimore-based group say that their anti-violence efforts won't succeed if they don't persuade youngsters to join their ranks.
"We can do all we want with legislation, but legislation doesn't change people's attitudes," said Richard Willis, executive director of MAHA. "That has to start with the youth."
To that end the group's educational arm is creating a statewide Youth Advisory Council for school-age youngsters who can take gun-control advocacy to the streets.
"This will have to be a project- and activity-oriented council if we want to keep students interested," said Nancy Fenton, MAHA administrative director who led a small group of volunteers yesterday in beginning to organize the council and recruit members.
Among their first efforts will be a conference on Youth and Gun Violence Prevention April 23 in Columbia, where they hope to build membership.
The conference will allow young people from 6 to 18 to participate in a half-dozen workshops designed to give them experience in learning how to be advocates.
Children as young as 6 will learn how to make banners and use other visual techniques to send their message, while older youngsters can join workshops on techniques such as recruiting members and lobbying Maryland legislators.
Still others will learn how to produce newsletters and public service announcements and how to set up town meetings.
The Youth Advisory Council is the centerpiece of MAHA's growing educational movement, said Mrs. Fenton. The effort is supported by a $20,000 grant from the Aaron and Lillie Straus Foundation and $5,000 from the Abell Foundation.
The group that met yesterday included Miriam Padilla, a high school junior who is president of the Rockville-based Youth Stand Against Violence, and Jamie Kendrick, 19, a AmeriCorps member who took a year off from his studies at the University of Maryland to work with young people.
Ms. Padilla told the group she got involved in youth work because she feared for the life of her friends who were students by day and gang members by night.
"I worried every day when I woke up whether my friends were still alive," she said. "I realized you have to do something. So that's why I'm here."
Mr. Kendrick works with Magic Me, a statewide nonprofit program that encourages middle school students to interact with the elderly. He said that he encounters children every day, and "a gun doesn't seem to be any big deal to them."
It's that attitude among youngsters that the youth council can change, Mr. Willis said.
"Our goal in the next year is to change people's perception," he said. "People aren't smoking indoors anymore because it's a health risk. Well, the risk of having a gun in the house should be no more acceptable than smoking in the house."
MAHA's youth conference will be at Oakland Mills Meeting House in Columbia from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. April 23. Information: 889-1477.