Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler speaks about gun control

Jonah Shrock, News Editor

On Tuesday Dec. 9, Attorney General of Maryland Doug Gansler spoke to students in the Upper School library about gun violence and gun control in the U.S.

His visit was planned by the Social Activism Club, which reached out to Gansler due to his work as Attorney General on the issue and his record of supporting gun control legislation in the State of Maryland.

“Social Activism Club has been working on gun control and we’ve been trying to educate ourselves about gun control, and potentially go to a rally and advocate for it,” junior and Social Activism Club leader Maayan Rose said. “Our mission as part of Social Activism Club is to educate the rest of the school, too, so we thought this would be a really interesting way to participate in the discussion and learn.”

Junior Elana Kravitz attended the event and appreciated hearing from Gansler because of his extensive experience in the government

“He didn’t really have any revolutionary ideas, but I thought it was interesting to hear from someone who actually has to deal with government and with law,” Kravitz said. “You have to look at it from the point of view of people who are enforcing [the law] and have to deal with it in court and on the streets, and he gave that viewpoint very well.”

Gansler, who is Jewish and is fairly involved in the Jewish community of Greater Washington, enjoyed speaking at JDS and appreciated the large number of students who came to hear him speak.

“It was a good crowd,” Gansler said. “There were a lot of people; they asked good questions. There were more pro-gun people than I would’ve thought that there would have been at a Jewish school.”

Rose believes that Gansler’s visit to the school was a success and was effective in involving students in political discussion.

“I don’t 100 percent agree with every single thing he said, but I think he had a really good, engaging discussion and I’m glad that he came and spoke to us,” Rose said.

After his speech, Gansler paid a visit to the Debate Club, where he offered his personal opinion on for-profit prisons, the Debate Club’s topic for this month.