Daffodils spotlight irresponsible gun owners

A call for irresponsible gun owners to be held more accountable and for lawmakers to enact stiffer penalties for those who aren't were some of the highlights of the third annual Daffodil Day of Remembrance Monday.

Each year, the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah plants 1,000 daffodils in remembrance of those who have died from gun violence. This year's event was at the Sorensen Multi-Cultural Center, 855 W. California Ave.

Before planting the flower bulbs, Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson urged elected officials, particularly those at the state Legislature, to do more to hold gun owners who don't properly store their weapons accountable. The mayor scolded lawmakers for being "unwilling to do the right thing when it comes to gun violence."

"It's a cold, hard unavoidable fact. Children, very young children, are dying in our community because they have access to guns," Anderson said. "Children are gaining access to guns, and the results are deadly."

Between 1988 and 2003, there were about 250 incidents of children being shot unintentionally by other children in Utah, or about 16 incidents a year, Anderson said.

Minors who possess guns should also be held accountable and be charged with more than a class B misdemeanor, the same penalty for littering and letting weeds grow too big, Anderson said.

In addition to passing stronger laws, Anderson urged state lawmakers to give more power to local governments in deciding gun issues and encouraged them to come up with a state version of the federal assault weapons ban that recently expired.

Ron Mullen's son was shot and killed in 1992 while he was attending Indiana University. The man who shot him was a graduate student from Stanford who was a Ph.D. candidate in computer science. He was angry at a girl whom Mullen's son tried to protect, Mullen said.

Mullen, a Salt Lake resident who attended Monday's planting ceremony, said his son would be alive today if the nation had stricter gun laws.

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were taken away," he said.

Janice Perry Gully, whose husband Jim, 61, was allegedly shot and killed by his 19-year-old mentally ill son Ben while hunting, was scheduled to speak but felt too overwhelmed with emotion Monday morning and canceled.

"She felt it was a little too early for her to speak," said center executive director Marla Kennedy.

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