Politics & Government
Protesters: 'Mayor Inks, Your Position Stinks!'
Anti-violence advocates let Mountain View mayor know how they feel about him ignoring Mayors Against Illegal Guns cause.
Chanting "Mayor Inks, your position stinks! Stand against illegal guns!" a Silicon Valley Organizing for Action group marched down Castro Street to City Hall Thursday to encourage the Mountain View mayor to join their campaign against gun violence.
"We were marching because no local mayor should be able to get away with not supporting Mayors Against Illegal Guns," said chapter-lead organizer Josh Wolf.
"Our message was well received as people dining on Castro Street applauded our efforts, and signed on to our petition asking Mayor Inks to join."
Wolf said the gun-violence prevention advocates are frustrated that John Inks has not aligned with 1,000 mayors nationwide, from cities including Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, and joined the movement Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
"The Mountain View mayor has refused our request to join the coalition, so we are rallying to demonstrate broad support for commonsense measures to prevent gun violence," he said.
The roughly 40 protesters who participated last week, Wolf said, "were energized by the positive feedback."
Mayor Inks has not yet responded to an inquiry from Patch, as he was away from city offices and could not be reached for comment last week. Inks' opinion on the march and the cause will be added when available.
In the past, Wolf said, Inks declined joining the coalition as the mayor questioned whether it would truly stem violence and perhaps was more of an "anti-gun" agenda.
Organizing for Action (OFA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization committed to "tipping the scales of power back to the American people instead of special interests in Washington" by addressing job creation, strengthening the middle class, gun-violence prevention, immigration reform and climate change.
The group held a rally in August in Palo Alto where some 50 volunteers thanked Mayor Gregory Scharff for aligning with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Wolf said.
"We are working to hold elected officials accountable for failing to take action to prevent gun violence," he summed.
According to the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website, the group has the backing of 1,000 mayors from 46 states and 1.5 million supporters nationwide.
For more information on Organizing for Action, click here.
