Gun Sense Lawmakers, Gun Violence Survivors, Over 500 Texas Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action Volunteers, In Partnership With the Texas Majority to End Gun Violence Coalition, Call for Action on Gun Safety During Annual Advocacy Day, and Celebrate 10 Years of Life-Saving Work in Austin

Hundreds of Concerned Texans of All Stripes, Gun Safety Advocates and Champions From Across the State To Travel to Austin Called for Action from Lawmakers to Strengthen Texas’ Gun Laws

Austin, Texas — Today, Texas Senators Roland Gutierrez and Serah Eckhardt, Texas Representative Vikki Goodwin, and over 500 Texas Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers, alongside a diverse coalition of Texans called the Texas Majority to End Gun Violence and Everytown for Gun Safety Senior Vice President of Movement Building, Angela Ferrell-Zabala, called for action on gun safety during their annual advocacy day in Austin. This year’s advocacy day coincides with the celebration of 10 years of Moms Demand Action’s life-saving work to protect our families and communities from gun violence. 

Volunteers met with lawmakers and their staff to advocate for gun safety measures to be passed during this session, including raising the age to purchase and possess semi-automatic firearms and expanding funding for community violence intervention programs, as well as rejecting calls to expand programs to arm teachers. 

“Over the past decade, Texas Moms Demand Action volunteers have been working tirelessly to take on the gun lobby in their own backyard,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, senior vice president of movement building for Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action. “We are proud to celebrate 10 years of impactful work and this coalition of partners as proof of our collective grassroots power. The time is now to come together and fight for life-saving action on gun safety.”

“This gun sense coalition came together today to send a message to our lawmakers that if they continue to play political games with our lives, we will just continue to grow stronger and louder,” said Liz Hanks, a volunteer with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action. “Gun violence continues to devastate our communities, and we are tired of inaction. This is just the beginning for this coalition. Lawmakers will continue to see us mobilize until change happens.”

This year, Moms Demand Action volunteers are asking lawmakers to take action and pass proactive measures that will save lives. This comes after Moms Demand Action volunteers had major success this past election cycle — across the country 150 Moms Demand Action volunteers won their race for office, and gun violence prevention proved to be a winning issue.

In the wake of the mass shooting in Uvalde last May, state lawmakers put politics over public safety, failing to take meaningful action on life-saving gun safety legislation. This has proven to be the pattern of Texas leadership. After the mass shootings in El Paso and Midland-Odessa, Texas lawmakers promised they’d do something. After the shootings in Sutherland Springs and Santa Fe, they held roundtable discussions and issued reports to suggest they were taking gun violence seriously but instead of taking action,  lawmakers returned to business as usual, and passed a bill to further weaken the state’s already-weak gun laws, putting Texans in even more danger.

Last legislative session, over objections from gun safety advocates, gun violence survivors, law enforcement, and other key public safety stakeholders, the Texas legislature passed permitless carry, a dangerous policy that has been shown to increase gun violence in other states. 

To speak to a local volunteer with Moms Demand Action, a volunteer with Students Demand Action, or a policy expert, please reach out to [email protected].