Anne Coakley has been unable to talk much about the 1996 accidental shooting death of her daughter Tara. But the recent Columbine High School shootings convinced Coakley and a group of Boulder-area residents that it's time to start talking — and working together toward stricter gun legislation.

This morning, Coakley and other victims of gun-related tragedies will gather at the state Capitol in Denver to announce the formation of a Boulder chapter of the new and nationally allied Bell Campaign. Modeled after Mothers Against Drunken Driving, the San Francisco-based organization will give Coakley, and others with similar experiences, support to fight for stricter gun laws.

The Boulder Chapter will be the first local chapter of the campaign in the state.

Coakley's daughter was killed as she sat eating pizza in her Boulder apartment and a man next door accidentally fired the gun he was cleaning. The bullet exploded through the common wall between the apartments, striking Tara Coakley, 27, in the head. She never regained consciousness.

"Tara was my only daughter and she was absolutely my dearest friend. She was a wonderful person. It has been just a terrible loss to our family," Anne Coakley said. "I hope to work so tragedies like this don't happen to other people. A death like this is so sudden. There's no time to say good-bye, tell the person you love them, and how dear they are to you."

Coakley's efforts won't go unchallenged.

Richard Bowman, president of the Colorado State Shooting Association, or the state's chapter of the NRA, said that stricter gun legislation is not the answer to gun-related tragedies. He points out that Washington, D.C., which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, also has one of the highest gun-related murder rates in the country.

In the case of accidents, Bowman cites NRA studies showing that auto accidents and accidental falls — which accounted for 721 and 251 deaths, respectively, in 1996 — cause many more deaths that gun accidents, which accounted for 16 lives during the same year.

Bowman said the NRA will form committees across Colorado to counter efforts of groups such as the Bell Campaign.

He added that public sentiment has not wavered much since the Columbine shootings: Prior to the shootings, 66 percent of Colorado residents supported the right for people with the appropriate training and background to carry concealed weapons.

"Today it is 65 percent," Bowman said. "People are fully aware that restricting their neighbors' civil rights is not going to be an answer to our problems."

Richard Haymaker, a spokesman for the newly formed Boulder chapter of the Bell Campaign, offered statistics that paint a different picture.

His research shows that most developed countries record between 20 and 100 gun-related deaths each year. The United States has about 34,000, he said.

A professor at Louisiana State University, Haymaker is spending his sabbatical in Boulder with his wife, Holley Galland Haymaker. The two have campaigned actively for stricter gun laws since a Japanese foreign exchange student living with them in Baton Rouge, La., was shot as he searched for a Halloween party.

The shooting death of Yoshi Hattori, 16, gained international attention in 1992 when he and Haymaker's son mixed up two digits in the address they sought, and Hattori wound up dead when they knocked on the mistaken door.

"My son was not shot, but Yoshi was shot in the chest and killed for simply knocking on the wrong door," Haymaker said. "They were invited to a foreign exchange student party by another Japanese girl. This was two weeks before Halloween. I've been involved in national organizing ever since."

The man who shot Hattori was never convicted on criminal charges for the shooting.

The Bell Campaign will be announced nationally as well in San Francisco, Atlanta, New York and Chicago.

May 25, 1999 | Print this page