http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10820-2000Oct15.html
A Birthday With Cake and Chants
By Michael Laris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday , October 15, 2000 ; Page C08
They carried signs that read, "School is a Place for Pencils not Pistols." They chanted, "Hey, Hey, NRA, we don't want guns where we play!" They put away the Radiohead and Smashing
Pumpkins and popped in a cassette of Buffalo Springfield.
The Million Mom March it wasn't. A typical teenager's birthday party? Definitely not. But organizers of the Thirteen Teenager Protest--and Lisa's 15th--outside the national headquarters of the
National Rifle Association in Fairfax yesterday claimed victory in the latest rhetorical faceoff over guns.
The protest was a belated birthday party for Lisa Grabenstetter, who decided she wanted her sweet 15 to be something special.
"I had decided to have a '60s-theme birthday party. I had to figure out something to protest," she said.
She chose gun violence and the NRA because she and her classmates have felt uneasy since the deadly shootings at Columbine High School, she said. Grabenstetter hooked up with Abby
Bornstein, 16, a sharp-penned junior at Woodson High School in Fairfax, who recently started a group called Teenagers Advocating Gun Safety and stood amid the birthday ballons on the
sidewalk outside the NRA headquarters.
"The ammunition of lobbyists is words, but the ammunition of this lobbyist, the National Rifle Association, is also ammunition. Real bullets that kill real people," she said to the dozen assembled
marchers and a handful of approving adults who work for organizations such as Handgun Control.
Among the marchers was Kristina Clarke, 17, a senior at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington. Clarke said a classmate was expelled a couple years back when he turned a yearbook into a hit
list, with cross hairs over pictures of those he said he wanted to shoot. She also had a second cousin who "blew the front of his face off" in a "gun mishap."
"It didn't kill him, but he's basically unrecognizable right now," she said.
There was also Sara Wassel, 13, of Frost Middle School. She usually spends her time hanging out with friends and playing basketball, not at protests, though she did attend the Million Mom
March.
"I don't really feel safe going to school anymore," she said. "We're having this so other people can celebrate their 15th birthdays."
Her parents were sent a letter by school administrators in recent weeks outlining an incident on a school bus shared by students from Frost and Woodson High School. A student brought a toy
gun and real bullets and threatened fellow students on the bus, said Elizabeth Wassel, Sara's mom.
"There are kids out there who want to make a statement by threatening people," she said.
David Vier, 17, a senior at Chantilly High School, said he saw flyers about the protest and decided to wage a counter protest. He's a member of the NRA.
"School shootings would not be prevented by gun control," he said. He passed out letters that read: "If one's goal is to increase gun safety and reduce violent crime, joining the NRA is much more
effective than protesting against it."
A spokesman for the NRA declined to comment other than to say: "We're closed."
Turnout was lower than Grabenstetter hoped. She had 500 flyers made up, which were passed around some high schools, though her own school, South Lakes High, prevented her from posting
them.
"They said they had to regulate what we put up because otherwise they'd have to let hate groups put stuff up too," she said. One of her friends was grounded, one had parents who thought she was
too young to protest, and two others had parents who are Republicans, Grabenstetter said.
"There's not as many people as I would have hoped, but the enthusiasm they are displaying makes it worth it," she said, adding that she hoped her new friends would come over for chocolate
birthday cake decorated with peace signs after the protest.
Grabenstetter's brother Warren, 10, was her biggest supporter.
"Everybody at school said, 'Your sister's doing that for her birthday party? That's weird,' " he said. "I think it's cool, personally."
© 2000 The Washington Post
A Birthday With Cake and Chants
By Michael Laris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday , October 15, 2000 ; Page C08
They carried signs that read, "School is a Place for Pencils not Pistols." They chanted, "Hey, Hey, NRA, we don't want guns where we play!" They put away the Radiohead and Smashing
Pumpkins and popped in a cassette of Buffalo Springfield.
The Million Mom March it wasn't. A typical teenager's birthday party? Definitely not. But organizers of the Thirteen Teenager Protest--and Lisa's 15th--outside the national headquarters of the
National Rifle Association in Fairfax yesterday claimed victory in the latest rhetorical faceoff over guns.
The protest was a belated birthday party for Lisa Grabenstetter, who decided she wanted her sweet 15 to be something special.
"I had decided to have a '60s-theme birthday party. I had to figure out something to protest," she said.
She chose gun violence and the NRA because she and her classmates have felt uneasy since the deadly shootings at Columbine High School, she said. Grabenstetter hooked up with Abby
Bornstein, 16, a sharp-penned junior at Woodson High School in Fairfax, who recently started a group called Teenagers Advocating Gun Safety and stood amid the birthday ballons on the
sidewalk outside the NRA headquarters.
"The ammunition of lobbyists is words, but the ammunition of this lobbyist, the National Rifle Association, is also ammunition. Real bullets that kill real people," she said to the dozen assembled
marchers and a handful of approving adults who work for organizations such as Handgun Control.
Among the marchers was Kristina Clarke, 17, a senior at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington. Clarke said a classmate was expelled a couple years back when he turned a yearbook into a hit
list, with cross hairs over pictures of those he said he wanted to shoot. She also had a second cousin who "blew the front of his face off" in a "gun mishap."
"It didn't kill him, but he's basically unrecognizable right now," she said.
There was also Sara Wassel, 13, of Frost Middle School. She usually spends her time hanging out with friends and playing basketball, not at protests, though she did attend the Million Mom
March.
"I don't really feel safe going to school anymore," she said. "We're having this so other people can celebrate their 15th birthdays."
Her parents were sent a letter by school administrators in recent weeks outlining an incident on a school bus shared by students from Frost and Woodson High School. A student brought a toy
gun and real bullets and threatened fellow students on the bus, said Elizabeth Wassel, Sara's mom.
"There are kids out there who want to make a statement by threatening people," she said.
David Vier, 17, a senior at Chantilly High School, said he saw flyers about the protest and decided to wage a counter protest. He's a member of the NRA.
"School shootings would not be prevented by gun control," he said. He passed out letters that read: "If one's goal is to increase gun safety and reduce violent crime, joining the NRA is much more
effective than protesting against it."
A spokesman for the NRA declined to comment other than to say: "We're closed."
Turnout was lower than Grabenstetter hoped. She had 500 flyers made up, which were passed around some high schools, though her own school, South Lakes High, prevented her from posting
them.
"They said they had to regulate what we put up because otherwise they'd have to let hate groups put stuff up too," she said. One of her friends was grounded, one had parents who thought she was
too young to protest, and two others had parents who are Republicans, Grabenstetter said.
"There's not as many people as I would have hoped, but the enthusiasm they are displaying makes it worth it," she said, adding that she hoped her new friends would come over for chocolate
birthday cake decorated with peace signs after the protest.
Grabenstetter's brother Warren, 10, was her biggest supporter.
"Everybody at school said, 'Your sister's doing that for her birthday party? That's weird,' " he said. "I think it's cool, personally."
© 2000 The Washington Post
. (moderators.. if this is too far out.. then I won't mind being censored on it).
)