Gun Sense in America 2022 is the theme of an online Community Forum on Friday, July 15, to be presented by four Southern California women who have been working against gun violence.

Topics of the 7 p.m. forum on Zoom will include federal and state legislation past and present, grassroots successes, gun violence and racial justice, and what we can do.

The four presenters at the forum are:

--Bette Empol and Karen Peters, Co-Chairs of the Ventura County chapter of Brady: United Against Gun Violence. They will speak about firearms legislation, including the federal measure recently signed into law by President Joe Biden.

--Donna Finkelstein of Women Against Gun Violence will talk about her successful grassroots campaign with school districts to educate about safe storage of guns in the home. Finkelstein's daughter Mindy was 16 years old in 1999 when she was hit in the legs by one of 70 rounds fired by a white supremacist gunman at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills. Mindy recovered from her wounds but has dealt with ongoing emotional trauma. Her mother decided that concentrating on safe gun storage would be an effective grassroots way of reducing firearms violence.

--Regina K. Hatcher-Crawford, President of the Ventura County chapter of the NAACP, will speak about gun violence and racial justice. "It takes each of us to make a difference," she says on the chapter's website. "For if we believe we can, we will."

The online event is organized by Chalice Community Forum, a program of Chalice Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Conejo Valley. The public is invited to the forum and can receive a Zoom link by registering at forum.chaliceuu.org. For information, contact Randall Edwards by e-mail at forum@chaliceuu.org or call the church office at (805) 498-9548.