JUNEAU — The parents of a high-profile murder victim are continuing their activism at the Alaska Legislature this year, campaigning to defeat a gun bill allowing firearms on university campuses and trying to toughen a criminal justice reform package.
Butch and Cindy Moore, whose daughter Bree was shot and killed by her boyfriend in 2014, are urging lawmakers to stop the progress of Senate Bill 174, sponsored by Sen. Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks.
The legislation would eliminate the university's power to ban concealed guns in its buildings, with exceptions for areas like dorms and if students or workers "pose a risk of harm to self or others."
The Moores wrote senators this week opposing the bill. Butch Moore said any proposal like Kelly's should also apply to the state Capitol, where weapons are currently banned except for those carried by law enforcement. A sign at the Capitol's main entrance alerts visitors they are entering a gun-free area. Lawmakers are also currently reviewing security measures after a woman shot and killed herself outside the Capitol last week.
"They're locking everything down, yet we're going to put guns into schools with a bunch of kids jacked up on Red Bull trying to get their tests done," Moore said in a phone interview Wednesday from Anchorage, where he was on his way to a hearing for Josh Almeda, the man who pleaded guilty to murdering Bree. "If they can walk up to a professor and ask why they got a D or an F with a gun, why can't I walk up to a legislator and have a gun on me as well?"
Kelly turned down an interview request Wednesday.
A spokesman for Kelly's Senate majority caucus referred questions about Moore's comments and SB 174 to Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, a co-sponsor of the bill whose committee advanced the legislation last month. McGuire didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The couple has been effective in their lobbying. Last year, the Legislature passed a bill aimed at preventing dating violence through education the Moores had advocated.
Bree Moore, then 20, was shot and killed in 2014 by Almeda at his family's home on the Anchorage Hillside.
The Moores then waged a monthslong campaign to get lawmakers to pass what's now known as Bree's Law. The measure was included in legislation sponsored by Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, and requires school districts to teach students about teen dating violence.
The Moores don't hesitate to bluntly criticize lawmakers they feel are standing in the way, with Cindy at one point last year accusing Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, of trying to turn the bill containing Bree's Law into a "junkyard" littered with other issues.
Since Walker signed the legislation in July, the Moores haven't gone away, turning their attention this year to Kelly's gun bill as Almeda is awaiting sentencing.
They've also objected to a measure sponsored by Dunleavy that would require school districts to get parental permission before teaching sex education. And, as part of a criminal justice reform package, they're pushing to change what Butch Moore views as a disparity in sentencing guidelines that could result in Almeda's prison term being lower than for someone convicted of rape.
"We can't save our daughter. I mean, she's gone," Butch Moore said. But he and his wife, he added, are now trying to "educate and protect young adults, and all adults."
Moore, a Republican registered in Big Lake in the Mat-Su, said he's been asked to run for public office but doesn't intend to, "at this point."
"I think people like that I'm not afraid to say the truth about what's going on," Moore said. "I don't have any agenda other than to protect our kids."
Millett, whose son grew up with Bree Moore, said in an interview that Cindy and Butch have harnessed their "grief and tragedy" to make political change.
"I see it all the time down here," Millett said. "That's the genesis of many good pieces of legislation."
She pointed out that Brandy Johnson, the widow of a state trooper killed while working in 2014, was also in the Capitol on Wednesday, lobbying for another bill sponsored by Millett: House Bill 66, which would guarantee health coverage for family members of firefighters and police officers killed in the line of duty.
"Those voices are powerful, and most of the time are basic, common sense — and not political in nature," she added.
Should the state Capitol be subjected to provisions in Kelly's gun bill, as Butch Moore proposes? Millett wasn't sure, saying she hadn't given it much consideration.
"I would have to think about it," she said.