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VICTORY FOR GUN SAFETY: Six Moms Demand Action Volunteers Win Elections in Minnesota, Flipping Statehouse to a Gun Sense Majority
More than One Hundred Twenty-Five Newly Elected Volunteers Join Growing Ranks of Moms Demand Action Volunteers Elected to Office Since Its Founding in 2012, Part of 275+ Volunteers who Ran for Office This Cycle Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action Volunteers Made Over Six Million Voter Contacts to Support Gun Sense Candidates Across the Country MINNEAPOLIS – Six Moms Demand Action volunteers from across Minnesota – all women – won election for office this week. Four of them were elected to the State Senate, flipping the chamber to provide a one-seat gun sense majority, and delivering a gun sense…
John Fetterman, Everytown-Supported Gun Sense Candidate, Wins in Pennsylvania
Everytown Victory Fund Supported Senator-elect Fetterman As Part of a $2.1 Million Investment in Pennsylvania this Election, Successfully Defeating Gun Lobby-Backed Mehmet Oz Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action Volunteers Made Over Six Million Voter Contacts to Support Gun Sense Candidates Across the Country HARRISBURG, Pa. — Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund and Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, declared a major victory today as Pennsylvania voters rejected gun lobby-backed Mehmet Oz and elected John Fetterman to the U.S. Senate. “In sending Senator-elect Fetterman to Congress, Pennsylvania…
NEW: Tying Together Guns and Abortion as a Winning Campaign Message
A new article in The Washington Post dives into a recent survey Everytown Victory Fund conducted with Schoen Cooperman Research of 4,800 voters across eight battleground states (Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). The survey reveals not only the strength of gun safety messaging in general, but how to link gun violence prevention and abortion rights under a frame of candidates who are putting our health and safety at risk. Combining these two issues is a highly effective messaging strategy, and results in a five to seven point increase of support for candidates who are…
New Politico Article Highlights Power of Gun Safety Messaging in Midterm Election
A new POLITICO article today highlighted the power that gun safety messaging can play in the midterm elections. After the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act earlier this year, the contrast between candidates who are on the side of public safety and those who are on the side of the gun lobby couldn’t be starker. In fact, as opponents try to highlight rising crime, gun safety champions have the opportunity to flip the frame and hammer their opponents on how opposing gun safety laws puts our communities and law enforcement at risk. Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund…
VICTORY FOR GUN SAFETY: Following Tireless Advocacy From Moms Demand Action And Students Demand Action, Governor Newsom Signs First-Of-Its-Kind Gun Safety Bill
The California chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety, released the following statements applauding California Governor Gavin Newsom for signing into law legislation to limit the spread of illegal guns and hold the gun industry accountable. SB 1327 creates a private right of action that would allow individuals to sue anyone who violates certain California firearm laws, including those who make or sell illegal assault weapons or ghost gun parts, and those who sell guns to underage buyers. Thousands of volunteers in California reached out to lawmakers in support of…
VICTORY FOR GUN SAFETY: Following Tireless Advocacy from Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, Governor Newsom Signs Historic Bill to Hold Firearm Industry Accountable for Role in Gun Violence Crisis
The California chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety, released the following statement applauding California Governor Gavin Newsom for signing into law legislation to establish accountability for the firearm industry. AB 1594 holds bad actors in the firearm industry accountable by establishing a firearm industry standard of conduct, and authorizes victims of harm from firearms in California, the Attorney General, or city or county attorneys to bring a civil action against a firearm industry member for violating that standard. The code of conduct aims to prevent the sale of…
ABC News: ‘Ghost guns’ showing up in school shootings, experts fear trend will get worse
Today, ABC News published a piece highlighting a recent rash of school shootings using ghost guns, do- it-yourself, undetectable guns. In the last few months, there have been incidents of gunfire on school grounds in Arizona, New Mexico, Maryland, and Kansas done with ghost guns — highlighting a scary trend. Unsecured guns in the home are the source of guns used in three out of four shootings, but ghost guns are a rising trend due to the easy accessibility for teens and allow teenagers to have do-it-yourself weapons sent to their home with no…
ICYMI — Associated Press: Gun Lobby-Backed State Legislatures Roll Back Gun Laws Despite Law Enforcement Opposition, Risk to Public and Police Officers
In several states with gun lobby backed state legislatures and Republican majorities, lawmakers have passed laws to weaken gun safety laws — and they’ve done so in spite of aggressive, vocal opposition from local law enforcement who have raised the alarm about the danger that rolling back training and permitting requirements for carrying a concealed gun in public poses to the public and to police officers, according the Associated Press. “There is something of a disjunction between repeating the political slogan of ‘back the blue’ versus supporting policies that rank-and-file police and leaders of police organizations actually…
Forbes: How Shannon Watts Says You Can Be A Mom And Advocate During Coronavirus
“After Sandy Hook, I felt I had to do something,” Ms. Watts explained. “It’s gun violence that kills 100 Americans a day, Black and Latino Americans represent the majority of gun homicide victims, and in an average month, 53 American women are shot to death by a partner. I have watched this issue in this country for too long and incredulous that no one was doing anything. As Alice Walker once said, ‘Activism is my rent for living on the planet.’ Fighting for gun safety became my rent!” Read the full article here.
New York Times: Bloomberg’s Gun Control Group Pours $15 Million Into Races in 8 States
“No question about it, the N.R.A. has never been weaker,” Mr. Feinblatt said. “It’s fair to say they are going to be spending more money on legal fees than they are digital or TV ads this cycle.”…
Ohio Statehouse News Bureau: “Gun Control Group Opposes Bill That Cuts Training Requirements For Armed Teachers”
“Allowing school staff to carry firearms in school is dangerous. Allowing this to happen without extensive training and ongoing training is irresponsible,” Lane said.
Essence: New Poll Shows Black Voters Still Strongly Support Gun Violence Prevention
“Black Americans are bearing the brunt of both gun violence and police violence, which are often one and the same, so it’s no surprise that both of these issues are front of mind,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety said in the press release. “Over the coming months, Everytown will go all-out to elect candidates who understand that passing long-overdue gun safety laws is an essential step toward protecting Black lives.”…
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: McCloskeys’ lack of weapons discipline underscores a gun-rights problem
“I’ve made a living carrying a weapon professionally on and off for my entire adult life. By the standards in which I was instructed, and by those same standards that I have striven to impart to shooters I have instructed, the McCloskeys violated basic weapons safety principles. Violating those principles can cost lives.” Read the full article here.
Salon: NRA’s silence on police violence is deafening — its members’ attacks on Black victims are worse
“The NRA claims to be a ‘civil rights’ organization, but their officials have spent the last month defending Confederate monuments while comparing the Black Lives Matter movement to the Nazi Party and ISIS,” John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement to Salon. “That tells you everything you need to know about whose ‘civil rights’ the NRA really cares about.” Read the full article here.
ABC News: COVID-19’s impact could include 20 more firearm suicides per day this year, analysis shows
The study comes from the research arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, a non profit organization which advocates for gun control. Researchers at Everytown looked back at prior crises that led to massive unemployment, including the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Great Recession that ended in 2010. The Great Recession, for example, led to an estimated 4,750 additional deaths by suicide — though not all specifically by firearms. Based on Everytown’s research of the impacts of unemployment on suicide from past recessions, the researchers estimate this economic downturn could lead to a 20 to 30% increase…
Washington Post: The pandemic has not stopped our other epidemic: Gun violence
“In the midst of this unprecedented coronavirus pandemic and the surge in gun sales it has brought, we need our laws to meet the moment,” Moss wrote. “We need a federal law requiring background checks on all gun sales, similar to the one Moms Demand Action volunteers just worked so hard to pass in my home state of Virginia.”…
Topeka Capital Journal: ‘Say their names’ candlelight vigil draws crowd, awareness
“Me being a mother who has lost a child to gun violence, I think people who use guns to take lives don’t really think about what they are doing.” Boyd said. “Because if they did they wouldn’t do it because they don’t really understand the pain and the destruction that they’ll cause.”…
Atlanta Journal Constitution: 10 Georgia mayors ask Legislature to repeal ‘Stand Your Ground’ law
“So-called ‘stand your ground’ laws encourage people to shoot first and ask questions later, and they enable these killers to get away scot free — especially when they kill Black people,” Billingslea said.
Union Leader: Robin Skudlarek: New laws would help prevent mass shootings
“Right now, our state senators and the governor have the opportunity to save lives. There is legislation in front of them that would offer a smart approach to confronting gun violence in the state. With gun deaths from suicide in New Hampshire continuing to rise, our lawmakers need to pass comprehensive extreme risk legislation. No more families should have to go through what mine had to.”…
Iowa Starting Line: Everytown Ad: Iowa GOP ‘Weakens’ Gun Laws With Preemption Bill
“At a time when Iowans are demanding leadership on not one but three crises — gun violence, racism, and coronavirus — lawmakers have instead prioritized gun lobby priorities over common-sense gun safety legislation,” Kennedy said in a statement. “We have no choice but to hold them accountable in November.”…
Medium: Americans Want Gun Safety and This Is The Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes — Six Things I Learned From National Security Advisor Susan Rice
Gun violence survivors push us forward. June is an important month for gun violence survivors. It’s when we marked National Gun Violence Awareness Day and gathered for Wear Orange weekend to honor the more than 100 Americans who are shot and killed on average each day, as well as the hundreds more who are shot and wounded. On June 12, survivors and families marked four years since the horrific shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people and wounded 58 more, many of them LGBTQ and Latino.
The Raleigh News & Observer: Bloomberg group ads hit Trump, Tillis, North Carolina GOP
“North Carolina could decide the presidency and the balance of the Senate, and it’s why we’re going to go all in with our most significant investment and effort ever,” said Charlie Kelly, a senior adviser for Everytown for Gun Safety.
WPRI – Providence (CBS): Raimondo to signs ‘ghost gun’ bill into law
“Easy access to ghost guns undermines our gun laws, putting us all at risk,” founder of Moms Demand Action Shannon Watts said. “After years of advocacy, Rhode Island Moms Demand Action volunteers helped see this life-saving legislation across the finish line.”…
USA Today: My mom was killed in the Mother Emanuel church shooting. We must disarm racism and hate.
“This is the time to address these problems –– by protesting, by voting, by addressing loopholes like the one that killed my mom and cousins five years ago and by dismantling the systems of oppression that African American communities face every day. But like so many of these problems that kill Black people in America, the Charleston loophole has gone unaddressed –– even as the other victims’ families and I have continually called out for action.” Read the full article here.