Shootings in Glenview few and far between, police say, 'but as a national gun safety issue we take this very seriously'

Something clicked in Margaret Sents that day.

A retired teacher who's lived in Glenview for 26 years, in the 1980s Sents taught children in an adolescent unit at Evanston Hospital. She was there when they brought in the second-graders Laurie Dann shot at a Winnetka school on May 20, 1988.

Able to purchase three guns despite a long history of domestic trouble and having being treated for mental illness, Dann brought them all with her to the school. She shot six children, killing one, before killing herself.

That affected Margaret Sents, who has also engaged local government and written newspaper op-eds about issues such as minimum wage legislation, affordable housing and immigration.

She aligned with like-minded women including state Rep. Denyse Stoneback, a Skokie Democrat who, before becoming a state representative, was a community activist and founded People for a Safer Society in response to the Sandy Hook School shooting in 2012; and retired Chicago Public Schools teacher Yvonne Smith, a member of People for a Safer Society and the advocacy group, United Power for Action and Justice.

Most recently, Sents has raised awareness of the Gun Safety Consortium, formed in 2020. It's a nationwide volunteer entity funded by 17 member jurisdictions, including Evanston, Park Ridge and Kane County.

Uninterested in removing guns from law-abiding owners, the consortium seeks instead to encourage manufacturers to develop gun security devices for civilians and law enforcement.

"I found that the Gun Safety Consortium was trying to use market approaches. They're attempting to get gun manufacturers to bring to market a product that is safer," Sents said.

"Most of the gun deaths that we hear about are suicides. There's also a lot of problems with kids finding unsecured guns in their houses. Those kinds of things can be addressed by having a safer product. The gun industry has spent no effort at getting safe guns which will only operate in the hand of the owner," she said of so-called "smart guns."

Park Ridge Police Chief Frank Kaminski is on the consortium's Steering Team. Its seven members "strategically plan for how to move forward and how to get other people involved," he said.

Over three decades in Evanston before becoming Park Ridge chief of police in 2009, Kaminski is a longtime advocate of community policing and gun violence reduction.

The Park Ridge Police Department in 2020 tested several types of locking devices for handguns and rifles provided by entrepreneurs in the field, Kaminski said. The Gun Safety Consortium sends requests for proposals to manufacturers for products police can test.

"The ultimate goal of this is to reduce gun violence. This is a huge problem, and how do you get an elephant to take one bite at a time? It just provides one way to reduce this big issue of gun violence," Kaminski said.

"A lot of the buy-in is, does it make sense? It's not trying to take guns away from people, which is always controversial. It's how do we make them safe, which is always the balance. The technology is out there; it's how do we embrace the technology."

For him and others, like Margaret Sents, it comes one police force at a time.

In August, Sents said she joined local religious leaders to meet with Glenview village and police officials to discuss the possibility of subscribing to the Gun Safety Consortium or to sign a request for proposals.

The Village of Glenview approved the latter measure Sept. 21.

"After reviewing the initiatives of the group with the police department, we committed to supporting the Consortium in its mission to forge a nonpartisan, pragmatic path forward to reduce gun violence," Glenview President Mike Jenny told the Herald in an email.

"It seemed like there was a lot of community interest, and we started looking into it and it looked like a great group," said Glenview police Sgt. Joel Detloff.

"Shootings in Glenview are few and far between, but as a national gun safety issue we take this very seriously," he said.

Detloff said the Glenview Police Department has participated in remote meetings with nationwide Gun Safety Consortium leaders, members and other police forces, in which new safety products were demonstrated and discussed.

"Glenview will join other municipalities and police departments to participate in opportunities to offer feedback and evaluate products and procedures that will help owners secure firearms from theft or unauthorized use," Jenny said. "We're excited to do our part, and grateful for the community engagement that led to our awareness and participation in the Consortium."

Like Kaminski's elephant taking one bite at a time, Sents would have preferred the village approve financial backing for the Consortium but appreciated its support.

"It's a step," she said.

"Our city fathers gave us a nice Christmas present of putting our village up as a community that values safety and is looking out for the best interests of the children," she said.

"Don't buy a gun for Christmas. Wait for the new, improved model."