2023: Year in Review

2023 was a power-building year for the gun violence prevention movement and, in the wake of tragedy, we forged new paths in our fight to keep our families and communities safe. Our movement is larger and more diverse than ever before, and we continue to show Americans from all walks of life that we can make life-saving progress when we work together. Now, as all eyes turn to the 2024 elections, Everytown and its grassroots networks of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action are ready to make history yet again by sending the strongest gun safety administration ever back to the White House and sweeping gun sense champions to victory at every level of government, including lawmakers who cut their teeth as volunteers in our movement. 

Look no further than Virginia for a sneak peek at our 2024 playbook. The Virginia elections are always considered a bellwether that sets the tone for federal elections the following year, and the 2023 cycle was no different. The races Everytown strategically focused on generated crystal-clear contrasts between candidates when it came to gun safety policies and abortion rights — the issues that also matter most to the voters who will decide the 2024 elections. And our hard work paid off:

• Our gun sense candidates and Moms Demand Action volunteers won key victories up and down the ballot, flipping the House of Delegates and ensuring a gun sense majority in the Virginia legislature. 
• Incredibly, Moms Demand Action volunteers now make up nearly 20 percent of the Virginia House Democratic caucus. 

Our victories in this key state prove we have a winning strategy, and voters can expect to see it in action across the country next year. Of course, our progress on gun safety went far beyond the ballot box in 2023. We built on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the life-saving legislation we passed in 2022, to support a proposed rule that would close deadly loopholes in our background check system.

• Together, our supporters submitted hundreds of thousands of comments to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to support the proposed rule, which would finally close the online and gun show loopholes — and thanks to the efforts of our volunteers and supporters, we are closer than ever before to making that a reality.

And we didn’t stop there. In statehouses across the country, we made historic advancements on gun safety:

• We passed a record-breaking 130 gun safety policies representing our key legislative priorities. 
• We blocked 95 percent of the gun lobby’s dangerous agenda.
• And despite the chaos unleashed by last year’s dangerous ruling by the Supreme Court in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, we successfully supported states as they passed stronger gun safety laws in response.

Through our legislative work on Bruen fix bills and the progress made by the skilled team of litigators at Everytown Law, we’ve sent a clear message to the gun lobby: the courts aren’t a rubber stamp for their extremist Second Amendment challenges, and we will do everything in our power to make sure judges know what’s at stake.

Our work to advance gun safety in the courts has never been more important. At the end of 2023, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Rahimi, a case that is sure to be one of the most impactful in a generation. At its heart is a fundamental question about whether domestic abusers should be allowed to arm themselves — and women and children’s lives hang in the balance. Justices are now weighing the arguments, and we’ve been there every step of the way to make it clear what’s at stake, including by rallying with a coalition of partners and survivors of domestic violence on the steps of the Court.

As we continue to weaken the gun lobby’s stranglehold on our political system, we also deepened our work to hold the gun industry accountable for its role in this crisis: 

• Through lawsuits, in-person protests, savvy activations and on-campus divestment campaigns this year, we showed Americans that deliberate choices made in gun industry boardrooms have deadly consequences — and there will be no more business as usual. 
• We directly confronted industry executives while they partied at SHOT Show in Las Vegas and filed historic lawsuits against gun manufacturers whose violations of law and reckless conduct led to death and trauma.

We made it clear that the days of gun companies getting away with irresponsible business practices are over, and we refuse to let them rake in $9 billion a year in revenue while our communities suffer. 

As Moms Demand Action embarked on our 10th year of advocacy, we welcomed more volunteers and supporters to our movement than ever before and ensured our chapter leadership includes the people who are most impacted by this crisis: survivors of gun violence and Black, Indigenous and people of color. Through powerhouse in-person Advocacy Days at state capitols to our most racially diverse Gun Sense University ever, we made 2023 a true movement-building year. We’re now stronger than ever, and we’re ready to write the next chapter of our story together. 

This is just a fraction of the work we’ve done to make our communities safer this year. Read on for an in-depth look at all that our movement accomplished in 2023 — and what we’re looking forward to in 2024.

Spotlight: Closing the Online and Gun Show Loopholes

For decades, unlicensed gun sellers have exploited ambiguities in the law to avoid conducting background checks on guns sold online and at gun shows. Everytown has long advocated for clarifying the definition of who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms and therefore required to get a license and perform background checks on all sales. We advocated for language in BSCA that revised that statutory definition for the first time in almost 40 years. 

After BSCA’s passage, Everytown immediately urged the Biden-Harris Administration to follow through with new regulations explaining which gun sellers must get dealer licenses and provided the legal strategy to do so. We made it clear that closing these loopholes would significantly reduce no-background check gun sales, keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous people and prevent tragedies like the 2019 shootings in Midland and Odessa, Texas, that killed seven people and wounded 25 others. President Biden then issued a strong, clear executive order directing ATF to propose a rule that goes as far as legally permissible to close the loopholes in our background check system.

In September, following President Biden’s order, ATF announced a proposed rule to close the online and gun show loopholes, moving the nation closer to background checks on all gun sales. Make no mistake: This was a monumental victory made possible by a decade of strong advocacy from Everytown and Moms Demand Action volunteers who never stopped fighting for background checks after the Manchin-Toomey bill failed in 2013 in the wake of the Sandy Hook School shooting. 

Once the proposed rule was announced, our supporters and grassroots army got to work driving as many comments in support of it as possible. Americans had 90 days to comment in favor or against the proposed rule, and we wanted to make sure ATF knew how important following through on this rule was.

While we await the rule’s finalization, one thing is clear: Our grassroots movement came together across the country to raise our voices and strengthen our background check system to save lives.

Spotlight: Holding the Gun Industry Accountable

We continued to hold the gun industry accountable in the court of law and the court of public opinion in 2023, with Students Demand Action volunteers leading the way on our grassroots work. From confronting industry executives at their annual trade show to organizing divestment campaigns on college campuses across the country, young leaders continually reminded the gun industry that there is a human cost to their greed — and we refuse to pay the price with our lives. 

In January, the gun industry’s trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), kicked off its annual SHOT Show convention in Las Vegas just two miles from the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. In response, Students Demand Action unveiled a series of comprehensive demands for the firearms industry to adopt responsible business practices — and volunteers brought these demands directly to the industry during the show. As members of the industry arrived in Las Vegas, they were greeted by billboards showing that guns are the number one killer of children and teens, which we placed all along the route from the airport to their hotels. Everytown Support Fund and Students Demand Action ran digital ads targeted to the Las Vegas area and held a demonstration outside of the convention to ensure industry members couldn’t look away from this crisis. Additionally, to help the public and policymakers understand the industry’s role in fueling gun violence, Everytown Support Fund released a groundbreaking new report exposing the role NSSF plays as a front group for the nation’s firearms industry at every level of the supply chain.

In October, the nation’s largest gun manufacturer, Smith & Wesson, relocated its headquarters to Maryville, Tennessee, to avoid stricter gun laws in its former home state of Massachusetts. The move followed the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, which left three children and three adults dead. In response, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action mobilized to make it clear that Smith & Wesson isn’t welcome in Tennessee, either. Volunteers joined faith leaders and community members to hold a press conference near the grand opening of Smith & Wesson’s new offices and flew a plane with a banner showing the true cost of gun violence over their opening day party. 

Spotlight: Making an Impact at the Nation’s Highest Court

We took our fight for gun safety all the way to the Supreme Court this year to demand that justices put the lives of women and families above the interests of the gun industry in a pivotal case that will determine whether domestic abusers will be allowed to arm themselves. 

The Rahimi case first came to national attention in February, when a panel of extreme judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit struck down a 30-year-old federal law prohibiting people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing guns. The Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of defendant Zackey Rahimi, despite his extensive history of domestic violence and dangerous behavior with guns.

In response to this extreme and deadly decision, Everytown Law urged the Supreme Court to take up the case and filed an amicus brief urging the Court to reverse the Fifth Circuit’s decision and side with victims and survivors of domestic violence. When it came time for justices to hear oral arguments on November 7, Everytown Law, in coordination with Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, spearheaded a rally outside of the Supreme Court that was attended by hundreds of advocates and partner organizations. 

Now, all eyes are on the Court as we await its decision, which is expected in the spring or summer of 2024. But we refuse to remain silent. Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers across the country, many of whom are survivors of gun violence, are continuing to mobilize to make sure every American knows what’s at stake with this Supreme Court decision. And we’ll keep fighting to put the safety of women and families above the interests of the gun lobby. 

Setting the Stage for the 2024 Election

Everytown and the Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund invested more than $1.5 million in the Virginia elections, resulting in one of the biggest victories of the 2023 cycle. Gun sense legislators took control of the Virginia House of Delegates and maintained their majority in the Virginia Senate. And while Governor Glenn Younkin and Virginia Republicans invested tens of millions of dollars across the state, their failure to achieve unified MAGA control of Richmond represents a major defeat, as well as a rejection of their extreme “guns everywhere” agenda.

Our messaging in Virginia successfully pushed back on MAGA extremism, framing the debate around weak gun safety laws and restrictions on abortion as threats to the health and safety of our communities. And as we saw in the 2022 midterm elections, this again proved to be a potent, motivating message for key voter targets. Further, with violent crime on the rise across Virginia, Everytown led the way in flipping the script on “soft on crime” accusations against Democrats, highlighting the threat posed to public safety and law enforcement by the MAGA agenda. We made it clear to voters that despite their rhetoric to the contrary, MAGA candidates’ policies actually put our families and communities at risk by making it easier for dangerous people and violent criminals to access guns. Post-election polling showed that message resonated: 83 percent of gun policy voters support strengthening Virginia’s gun laws or keeping them as they are now, and Democrats led Republicans on crime and safety by four percentage points in battleground districts.

Across the state, voters resoundingly supported leaders who will fight to protect and expand common sense gun laws, including Moms Demand Action volunteers who have become lawmakers themselves. The newly flipped House of Delegates includes nine Moms Demand Action volunteers who won their races this cycle, like Joshua Cole, whose victory in HD-65 helped flip the House. Moms Demand Action volunteers now make up nearly 20 percent of the Virginia House Democratic caucus. In all, 17 of the 28 endorsed Virginia Moms Demand Action volunteers who ran in Virginia in 2023 won their elections up and down the ballot, and to support those down-ballot races, Everytown launched a paid media campaign for volunteer candidates highlighting their gun violence prevention advocacy.

Everytown also found success in key races outside of Virginia. We know that state supreme courts have become an important line of defense for many gun safety laws, and sheriffs have an important role to play in enforcing them. In 2023, we expanded our electoral efforts to reflect this by investing in key races:

After celebrating these electoral victories this year, we’re already looking ahead to the 2024 elections. In August, Everytown joined other major gun violence prevention organizations in endorsing President Biden and Vice President Harris’ reelection campaign. We’re ready to go all-out to hand the strongest gun safety administration in history another term in the White House, and sweep gun sense candidates to victory up and down the ballot next year.

Flexing Our Grassroots Power

As Moms Demand Action kicked off its 10th year of advocacy alongside our vast network of Students Demand Action chapters, we ushered in a new era for our movement. In January, Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts announced she was stepping back from her leadership role and passing the torch to our first-ever executive director, Angela Ferrell-Zabala. Angela is a lifelong organizer and grassroots advocate who has worked to advance LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights and civil rights, among other causes. She joined Everytown in 2019 to lead our movement-building work, where she oversaw grassroots organizing, external, cultural and corporate engagement, and national partnerships and programming. 

We know Angela is the perfect person to help write the next chapter in the story of Moms Demand Action, and she brings a wealth of experience — as well as fierce positivity and indefatigable hope — to her new role. Angela’s lived experiences as a Black queer woman, a mother of four and a person of faith all inform her advocacy, and she is leading our tens of thousands of Moms Demand Action volunteers into the next decade of our work with an intersectional and inclusive focus. For Angela, making sure our movement is reflective of the Black communities and other communities of color who are most impacted by gun violence is paramount. As she often says, “There should be nothing about us without us.” With Angela at the helm, grassroots volunteers continued their work to build a more diverse and inclusive movement throughout 2023, showing Americans from all walks of life that there is a place for them in this work, whether they’re survivors of gun violence, gun owners, Democrats, Republicans or Independents.

There was no better place to celebrate all of our progress and usher in this new era of Moms Demand Action than at our tenth annual Gun Sense University in Chicago, where thousands of volunteers and gun violence survivors gathered for a weekend of programming, training and community building. It was our first in-person GSU since the COVID-19 pandemic, and volunteers from across the country were thrilled to be able to learn from and celebrate with each other face to face once again. This year, more leaders of color and survivor leaders attended GSU than ever before, reflecting our ongoing work to build a more diverse and inclusive community.

GSU attendees were joined by some incredible guests: Vice President Harris sat down with Angela and Emmy-nominated actor and Everytown Creative Council member Jason George for a sweeping conversation about the power of the gun safety movement and where we’re going together. The next day, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and other state gun sense leaders joined volunteers on stage to sign the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act into law and celebrate the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold the state’s assault weapons ban, which was passed in the wake of the Highland Park shooting tragedy.

We also presented our annual Gun Sense Lawmaker of the Year awards at GSU to the federal, state and local gun sense champions who helped us make progress in 2023:

• Representative Steven Horsford of Nevada was recognized with Everytown’s Federal Gun Sense Lawmaker of the Year Award. 
• Governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Tim Walz of Minnesota and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois were recognized with Everytown’s State Gun Sense Lawmakers of the Year Award. 
• Mayors Against Illegal Guns Co-Chair Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard of Mount Vernon, New York, was recognized with Everytown’s Local Gun Sense Lawmaker of the Year Award. 
• And all of Moms Demand Action’s volunteers-turned-lawmakers in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota were presented with our Demand a Seat Lawmakers of the Year Award.

After nearly a decade of inaction, in the last 18 months, governors in Washington, Illinois, and Delaware signed laws banning assault weapons and Connecticut strengthened its existing law.

Our grassroots power was truly on display at GSU this summer, but it’s the often behind-the-scenes, sometimes unglamorous work that our incredible volunteers put in year-round that makes the greatest impact. Our grassroots army is what sets us apart from other organizations, and it’s what has allowed us to change the political calculus and shift the culture on this issue from Congress to statehouses, school boards to boardrooms, pediatrician visits to playdates and beyond.

Here’s more on how we’ve built our grassroots power in 2023:

Volunteers Go from Advocating for Policy to Writing It: Demand a Seat

Since 2017, hundreds of Moms Demand Action volunteer leaders have run for elected office and dozens have won seats — from town councils and school boards to Congress. In 2021, Everytown Victory Fund launched the Demand a Seat program to increase the number of volunteers running for office at every level of government by giving volunteers the tools, training and mentorship they need to succeed. And since 2021, more than 750 volunteers, survivors of gun violence and candidates have been accepted into the program and more than 250 volunteers have been elected to office.

Building on an incredibly strong 2022 midterm cycle, Demand a Seat continued with great success in 2023, training two cohorts of volunteers and survivors of gun violence, running candidate boot camps, and launching the first-ever Demand a Seat: Students Edition. This year alone, 162 Moms Demand Action volunteers ran for office in 28 states, with 96 winning their elections. That’s nearly four times the number who ran in previous off-year elections in 2021. And we’re bringing new leaders into the fold: Of the Moms Demand Action volunteers who ran for office in 2023, 71 percent were non-incumbents.

Here are some more highlights from our volunteers who ran in 2023:

• 42 percent of total wins were city or county councils
• 35 percent of total wins were school board races
• 11 percent of total wins were state legislative seats in Virginia and New Jersey
• 9 percent of total wins were mayoral races

The inaugural Demand a Seat: Students Edition program brought 40 participants between the ages of 16 and 25 to Denver for a weekend of learning and leadership building. These young leaders from across the country gained an understanding of how to run for office and work on political campaigns by hearing from seasoned political pros and young lawmakers alike. They took a deep dive into the ins and outs of building winning campaigns and worked together to demonstrate the political power of young voters in the fight to end gun violence. Most of all, Demand a Seat: Students Edition showed young people that they aren’t the leaders of tomorrow, they’re the leaders of today — and their voices are powerful.

Students Demand Action

Gun violence continues to be the leading cause of death for children, teens and college-aged people in America. But while young people often bear the brunt of this crisis, they’re also leading the fight to end it. Since its inception, Students Demand Action has grown to include over 780 groups across the country with more active volunteers this year than ever before. 

The gun industry plays a massive role in fueling gun violence, and Students Demand Action led the way in holding gun and ammunition manufacturers accountable in 2023. They confronted gun industry executives in person while protesting SHOT Show in Las Vegas, refusing to let people look away from this crisis through mobile billboards, placards and their list of demands. The following month, students launched the #KillerBusiness campaign to demand colleges and universities fully divest from the gun industry, all while generating change within their own communities. But the work didn’t stop there. 

Black and Latinx youth disproportionately experience gun violence, and we can’t address this crisis without acknowledging the impacts of systemic racism, white supremacy and historic disinvestment in communities of color. To deepen our work at this intersection, Students Demand Action hosted a first-of-its-kind summit to bring young Black changemakers together. We also held our first Latinx panel honoring National Hispanic Heritage Month for students. And we collaborated with The Flip Project to design innovative streetwear for our annual Wear Orange campaign — all in an effort to further amplify young Black and Latinx voices and create opportunities for leaders from these communities to lead the way in this work.

Student advocates also showed up in their communities, statehouses, and at the national level to demand action on gun safety. Following tragedy after tragedy this year — from daily gun violence to school shootings that shook the nation — students staged massive school walkouts, held rallies, and went toe to toe with lawmakers to make sure they knew exactly how this crisis is impacting young people.

2023 continued to make clear that young people aren’t waiting for older generations to act. They’re leading the way on this issue right now, mobilizing in their communities and at their schools to take control of their futures and address this epidemic. 

Survivors of Gun Violence

Survivors of gun violence have always been the bedrock of the gun safety movement, and in 2023, they continued to lead the way. In February, we marked the fifth annual National Gun Violence Survivors Week, and Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers, including survivor volunteers, organized more than 100 events across the country to center the voices of those who have been personally impacted by this crisis. More than 200 mayors and state and federal officials from across the country elevated the importance of the week, sharing stories from survivors on social media and issuing mayoral proclamations about the urgent need to prevent gun violence. And in honor of this year’s campaign, 30 mayors from across the country signed on as new members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

We welcomed 39 new survivors as part of this year’s Survivor Fellowship Program and in May, survivor fellows held meetings with 18 members of Congress to advocate for stronger gun laws during the Everytown Survivor Network’s first-ever in-person federal advocacy day. The Everytown Support Fund also allocated nearly $220,000 in grants to assist charitable organizations that work to support survivors of gun violence, from nonprofits working to prevent teen intimate partner violence to organizations offering mental health services and raising awareness about unsolved gun homicides. 

This year, the Everytown Survivor Network continued to offer trauma-informed programs to empower and support survivors and foster peer-to-peer connections. Through the SurvivorsConnect program, hundreds of survivors attended over a dozen support groups with a focus on trauma, grief, bereaved parents and wounded survivors, while hundreds more benefited from one-on-one survivor mentorship. Additionally, more than 1,500 people attended multiple Everytown Survivor Network events, which covered a range of topics to better include the diversity of experiences that people have with gun violence, shatter stigmas and improve people’s understanding of what it means to be a survivor.

Partnering With the Strongest Gun Safety Presidential Administration

In 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration cemented its status as the strongest gun safety administration in history. In March, President Biden released a series of executive actions focused on increasing the number of background checks conducted before firearm sales, increasing the effective use of Red Flag laws, and strengthening efforts to hold the gun industry accountable. One year after BSCA was signed, the administration continues to prove that they’ll use every tool at their disposal to keep families and communities safe.

On the anniversary of the signing of BSCA, President Biden spoke at the National Safer Communities Summit in Hartford, Connecticut, which was hosted by Everytown, Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action, Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, and GIFFORDS. In his remarks, President Biden highlighted the life-saving progress we’ve made in just the law’s first year. The full-day summit also included keynote addresses from Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Throughout the year, Everytown continued to work closely with the administration and other gun violence prevention organizations to ensure robust implementation of BSCA. Already, more than 200 illegal gun sales have been blocked thanks to enhanced background checks for buyers under the age of 21. The Departments of Health and Human Services and Education have already delivered more than $1.5 billion to states and communities to make our schools safer, improve access to mental health services and help young people deal with the trauma and grief resulting from gun violence.

In September, the Biden-Harris Administration unveiled a first-of-its-kind, innovative Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which will focus on advancing the administration’s ambitious gun violence prevention agenda. The new office is led by former Everytown senior director of federal government affairs, Rob Wilcox, and the former executive director of the Community Justice Action Fund, Greg Jackson. The creation of a centralized office in the White House to tackle gun violence shows just how far we’ve come on this issue from the highest levels of government. 

As we head into 2024, we’re ready to put it all on the line to reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris, protect our gun sense majority in the Senate and regain a gun sense majority in the House so our gun sense lawmakers can continue their life-saving work.

A Historic Year for Gun Safety in the States

In 2023, state legislatures across the country passed a record-breaking 130 gun safety policies. State lawmakers also blocked 95 percent of the gun lobby’s agenda, including hundreds of attempts by the gun lobby to weaken gun laws, and allocated $693 million to gun violence prevention efforts. Tens of thousands of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers and gun violence survivors made this work possible through tireless advocacy in their communities. 

It has all paid off. Our incredible progress this year was only made possible because of our years of grassroots power building, which also helped secure gun sense majorities in state legislatures and elect our own volunteers to office. Here are some of the highlights of what we accomplished in 2023:

Newly-Elected Gun Sense Trifectas Break Decades-Long Logjams on Gun Safety:

After gun safety advocates — including Moms Demand Action volunteers — ran for office and won, helping to flip the state legislatures in Michigan and Minnesota in 2022, both states used their new gun sense majorities to make history and pass multiple foundational gun safety laws.

Michigan

In April, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a gun safety package that included an Extreme Risk law, and laws to require background checks on all gun sales and secure firearm storage. The bill signing took place at Michigan State University, where just weeks prior, a shooter opened fire on campus and killed three students and wounded five others. Then, in November, Governor Whitmer signed a bill to keep guns out of the hands of convicted domestic abusers — the culmination of a yearslong effort made possible by the relentless advocacy of the Michigan chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, and survivors of gun violence like Rick and Martha Omilian, whose daughter Maggie was shot and killed by a domestic abuser in 1999.

Minnesota

In Minnesota, after former Moms Demand Action volunteers won their races and helped flip the Senate and hold the House, the legislature passed a historic gun safety package that included measures to require background checks on all gun sales and an Extreme Risk law. It was the first action on gun safety in Minnesota in nine years, and a historic moment when Governor Tim Walz signed the bills into law.

Defeating Gun Lobby Priorities and Demanding Action:

But we didn’t just play offense in 2023. Thanks to our advocacy, at least 15 Republican-led states failed to pass a single gun lobby priority bill, making this the ninth year in a row we’ve defeated the gun lobby’s priorities at least 90 percent of the time.

Tennessee

Following the shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville in March, the Tennessee chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action mobilized to honor the victims and survivors with action. They showed up at the statehouse day after day, and student leaders organized walkouts with 7,000 students in Nashville, as well as walkouts in Memphis and at more than 300 schools across the country. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee felt the pressure and called a special session on public safety — and Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund and Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund invested in a $100,000 ad buy to keep the pressure on. But when the time came to pass life-saving laws, like an Extreme Risk law that could have prevented the shooting at The Covenant School, lawmakers caved to the gun lobby and instead advanced dangerous legislation to arm teachers. Thanks to the tireless efforts of gun safety advocates and gun violence survivors, lawmakers rejected the push to put more guns in Tennessee schools. Our efforts in Tennessee are far from over — and we will hold lawmakers accountable for their inaction.

Arizona

In 2022, Arizona voters elected gun safety champion Governor Katie Hobbs, giving the state a critical backstop in blocking the gun lobby’s “guns everywhere” agenda. Governor Hobbs vetoed seven dangerous gun lobby priorities that would have further weakened Arizona’s already weak gun laws, including a bill to allow guns on college campuses and a bill to allow parents and guardians with concealed carry permits to bring firearms onto school grounds.

We also made crucial progress on our key policy priorities in states across the country this year, including:

• Blocking illegal gun access through legislation to require background checks on all gun sales in Michigan and Minnesota and to require a waiting period for purchasing a firearm in Colorado, Vermont and Washington.
• Holding the gun industry accountable for their role in the gun violence crisis with legislation to prohibit or strengthen existing assault weapons prohibitions in Connecticut and Washington and make it easier to sue bad actors in the gun industry in Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois and Washington.
• Funding and elevating community violence intervention programs to support these organizations as they work to break the cycle of violence in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington.
• Promoting and requiring responsible gun ownership through legislation that requires or strengthens secure firearm storage policies in Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico and Vermont and strengthens permitting systems and/or prohibits guns in sensitive locations in California, Delaware, Hawaii and Maryland.
• Keeping guns out of the hands of people at serious risk through legislation that creates Extreme Risk laws in Michigan and Minnesota, prohibits domestic abusers from having guns in Vermont and Michigan, and raises the age to purchase a gun in Colorado and Connecticut.

Holding the Gun Industry Accountable as the NRA’s Doom Spiral Continues

While many industries have innovated toward making their products safer over the years, the firearms industry has spent the past two decades working to make its products deadlier. Rather than taking simple steps to save lives, they’ve doubled down on protecting themselves and their $9 billion in annual revenue instead. So in 2023, Everytown expanded our efforts to hold both the gun industry and the lobbyists who protect it accountable for their toxic marketing practices and refusal to implement basic safety features in their weapons. In the process, we continued to weaken the gun lobby’s stranglehold on our democracy, including through calling out its powerbroker, the National Rifle Association (NRA). 

The NRA, once a political powerhouse, has remained mired in legal and financial trouble as both its membership and revenue continue to dwindle. In February, The Reload published a leaked set of NRA financial documents from the organization’s January 2023 board meeting, offering a glimpse of the NRA’s dire financial picture, which was further revealed in the organization’s own 2022 tax filings. Those filings show an organization marred by decreasing membership revenues and expanding legal fees. Compared to the year before, NRA revenue was down 39 percent, and membership dues were down more than 50 percent from the height of its power in 2013. Moreover, the NRA ran a $22 million deficit in 2022, the largest in six years and a $79 million swing from 2013, when it ran a large surplus.

The organization has become so toxic that many Republican legislators and candidates are steering clear, hiding their once prized A-ratings as voters increasingly see them as scarlet letters. Their financial trouble means they aren’t the kingmakers they once pretended to be, either. This year, Everytown out-spent the NRA in their home state of Virginia by 10 to one — and the commonwealth’s major gun safety victories show that the NRA’s influence continues to wane.

And as our movement grows stronger, the NRA’s list of defeats in courthouses, statehouses and Congress is only growing longer. Their doom spiral is the direct result of the gun violence prevention movement’s unshakeable efforts to hold the gun lobby accountable — and in 2024, our grassroots army of volunteers and survivors will continue to stand up to the NRA and sweep gun sense lawmakers to victory at every level of government.

The Smoking Gun

Everytown has also doubled down on our efforts to make sure the gun industry — which has long been shielded by the NRA — is held accountable for its role in fueling gun violence. 

In June, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund launched a first-of-its-kind resource, The Smoking Gun, which serves as an online hub for news and analysis about the industry’s reckless business practices. The site includes the nation’s most comprehensive database cataloging guns used and recovered in mass shootings, profiles on some of the largest gun manufacturers, news and reports about the industry, along with new data sets on guns recalled due to product defects and a gallery of examples of toxic gun industry marketing.

The Smoking Gun also provides an in-depth analysis of the three primary ways the gun industry contributes to the gun violence crisis, including:

• Innovating toward danger by continuing to produce increasingly deadly firearms, such as assault weapons, ghost guns and firearms that can easily be turned into machine guns.
• Arming criminals by failing to secure its supply chain, making it more likely for guns to be diverted to the criminal market and used in crimes. 
• Toxic marketing, that includes marketing guns, including assault weapons, to teens and extremists while downplaying the risks that firearm ownership poses.

Mayors Shine Spotlight on Top Manufacturers of Crime Guns

Making the public aware of which companies are responsible for creating and profiting off of the firearms that end up at crime scenes is a key part of holding the industry accountable. So in January, 31 members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns representing large and small cities from across the country released data on the manufacturers of crime guns recovered in their cities. 

The data show that the top manufacturer of crime guns was Glock in more than 60 percent of the cities. In fact, according to data provided by the participating cities, more than 1.5 times more Glocks were recovered, on average, than the second leading source of crime guns. In 2021, four gun manufacturers accounted for over half of the recovered crime guns: Glock (21.1 percent), Smith & Wesson (13.5 percent), Taurus (13.0 percent) and Ruger (7.0 percent). In all, Glock, Smith & Wesson, Taurus, and Ruger accounted for over 27,000 recovered crime guns in these cities throughout 2021. Additionally, the data shows that recoveries of ghost guns nearly tripled from 2020 to 2021, and Polymer80, the largest producer of ghost gun parts and kits, was the fifth-largest producer of crime guns in the cities surveyed.

There are several steps gun manufacturers could take to prevent diversion of their products to the criminal market, including establishing a dealer code of conduct to ensure that retailers who sell firearms adhere to basic guidelines; better monitoring of their supply chains to detect dealers breaking the law; and refusing to work with dealers who sell guns without a background check, including at gun shows and through online marketplaces.

Holding the Gun Industry Accountable in the Courtroom

2023 was an impactful year for Everytown Law, the nation’s largest and most experienced team of litigators dedicated to combating gun violence in the courts. This year, in state and federal courts across the country, Everytown Law made massive strides to hold the gun industry accountable, resulting in four historic settlements against the gun industry:

1. A first-of-its-kind settlement with a bad-actor ammunition seller: In February, Everytown Law announced a historic settlement with Luckygunner, an online ammunition seller that sold ammunition to a 17-year-old without a background check or age verification. This no-questions-asked sale resulted in the deadly school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas, which killed 10 people. This historic settlement means that Luckygunner must maintain an age-verification system moving forward, preventing other underage shooters from accessing ammunition. 
2. A settlement against a local gun store that will help prevent gun trafficking in Kansas City: In March, Everytown Law and the City of Kansas City announced a robust settlement agreement with a local gun store that will require the shop to implement best practices to prevent firearm trafficking. The settlement outlines the adoption of new policies, including mandatory training for employees and imposing a maximum for monthly handgun purchases for any new customers. The settlement also provides for an independent monitor to verify compliance with the agreement.
3. A $5 million settlement from the nation’s largest ghost gun manufacturer: In May, Everytown Law and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office announced a $5 million settlement with Polymer80, the nation’s largest manufacturer of ghost guns. Notably, the settlement included an agreement from Polymer80 that the ghost gun manufacturer would permanently cease all sales of ghost guns in the state of California. 
4. A second settlement from the nation’s largest ghost gun manufacturer: In December, Everytown Law announced that Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies Claudia Apolinar and Emmanuel Perez, who were ambushed and seriously wounded in a 2020 shooting with a ghost gun made by Polymer80, had settled their lawsuit accusing the ghost gun seller of violating California and federal laws. The shooter, who had previously been convicted of a felony, was able to acquire a ghost gun assembled from a kit sold by Polymer80, despite being legally prohibited from purchasing, or even possessing, firearms.

In addition to these historic settlements secured by Everytown Law, we’ve also filed new lawsuits to hold the gun industry accountable, including:

• A lawsuit out of Virginia against ghost gun website 80P Builder, which sold a ghost gun to a teenager online without age verification or a background check, resulting in a shooting that killed two teenage boys. 
• Two historic lawsuits representing survivors and their families impacted by the racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. In addition to representing Wayne Jones, the son of Celestine Chaney, one of the 10 individuals murdered during the 2022 shooting, Everytown Law also represents 16 survivors who, while they were not shot, suffered lasting harm from being in the line of fire. This innovative suit is changing the conversation around who is a victim in the aftermath of unthinkable tragedy.
• A lawsuit filed with the City of Philadelphia against three local gun stores that have engaged in repeated illegal straw sales, fueling the criminal market and perpetuating the city’s gun violence crisis.

This summer, news also broke that Westforth Sports, an Indiana-based gun store that for years served as the single largest out-of-state supplier of crime guns in Chicago, would be closing its doors. In 2021, Everytown Law and the City of Chicago filed suit against Westforth Sports, allowing the city to uncover mounting evidence that Westforth repeatedly broke federal gun laws and ignored clear signs of straw purchasing and gun trafficking, such as high-volume, repetitive, and multiple-sale transactions involving duplicate or near-duplicate firearms. It’s no surprise that as pressure on Westforth increased from both this legal action and increasing oversight from ATF, Westforth decided to shutter its doors.

Advancing and Protecting Gun Safety Amid Constitutional Challenges

Over the last year, we’ve seen the outsized impact of the Supreme Court’s dangerous Bruen decision across the country, with the gun lobby mounting challenges to even the most basic gun safety laws. Despite the chaos unleashed by Bruen, Everytown Law has secured major victories, including successfully defending Fairfax County’s prohibition on guns in parks in a challenge advanced by NRA-backed plaintiffs in Virginia. Everytown Law has also filed amicus briefs in dozens of gun-lobby-backed challenges to common-sense laws since Bruen, explaining why those laws remain consistent with the Second Amendment.

In addition, Everytown Law has seen historic victories in cases involving First Amendment challenges this year, including:

• In Columbia County, Oregon, Everytown Law secured a first-of-its-kind ruling and handed the “constitutional sheriffs” movement a major setback when the Oregon Court of Appeals struck down the “Columbia County Second Amendment Sanctuary Ordinance,” which attempted to declare all federal, state and local gun safety laws “null and void of no effect.”
• In West Virginia, Everytown Law helped secure a victory for the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence with a first-in-the-nation federal court decision finding key portions of the state’s “guns in parking lots law” unconstitutional. The law had barred property owners from asking about the presence of firearms on their property or “taking any action” against someone who makes statements about the presence of guns on the property. 
• In Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Everytown Law won a first-of-its-kind ruling rejecting a gun lobby-backed First Amendment challenge to the county’s ordinance requiring gun stores to distribute life-saving suicide prevention materials. The ruling is now on appeal.

In the coming year, Everytown Law will continue to provide expertise on key constitutional issues, including by directly representing state and local governments in cases challenging their common sense gun safety laws. Here are some of the cases we’re working on:

• Everytown Law is defending several local governments in Colorado in a constitutional challenge to state and local policies to restrict assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.
• Everytown Law is also defending the state of Hawaii against constitutional challenges to the state’s law restricting assault pistols and large-capacity magazines.

Strengthening Community Efforts to Fight Gun Violence

Community-based violence intervention (CVI) programs continue to work tirelessly with individuals at the highest risk of experiencing gun violence in the country’s most vulnerable communities. They do this through targeted interventions, including street outreach and hospital-based violence intervention programs. But while historic investments have been made at all levels of government, CVI organizations still struggle to access promised funding and when they do, funding is often restricted to programmatic expenses, preventing them from increasing their staff, building their capacity or scaling up to reach more people and places in need. 

Everytown is responding to city gun violence on multiple fronts, pushing for strong federal and state funding while ramping up grant support and capacity-building efforts for local initiatives and working with allies to push for broad, consistent investments from state and local governments. 

The Everytown Community Safety Fund, launched in 2019, is the largest national initiative solely dedicated to fueling the life-saving work of CVI organizations in cities nationwide. We are committed to distributing $25 million through 2026 to provide grantee organizations across the country with financial support as well as peer networking and capacity-building opportunities. And since the fund’s launch, we have granted over $11 million in support of 119 CVI organizations implementing promising strategies like street outreach, hospital-based violence interventions and youth development and counseling in more than 68 American cities.

In September, the fund announced its largest grant offering to date, allocating $2.35 million to 35 CVI organizations working in cities across the country. These grantees include IVYY Project at Grady in Atlanta, a hospital-based violence intervention program that offers wraparound services designed to reduce re-injury, retaliation and symptoms of post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety. Another grantee is Baton Rouge Community Street Team, a neighborhood-centered program assisting in the reduction of violence and crime through outreach to those at the highest risk of involvement in gun violence and direct intervention in moments of conflict. 

This year, the fund also launched a new grant for organizations implementing a public health approach with an innovative gun violence prevention, intervention or healing strategy. The first class of innovation grants — totaling $250,000 — were awarded to five organizations from cities across the country, including:

• Wambli Ska Okolakiciye, a native-led organization that works with Indigenous communities in Rapid City, South Dakota.
• The BRIC (Bullet Related Injury Clinic), a community-based clinic that specializes in helping people heal physically and emotionally after they have been injured by a bullet.
• Rise Up Rochester, a violence prevention organization focusing on rapid rehousing to prevent retaliatory violence in Rochester, New York.
• 4-CT, a partnership with Yale New Haven Hospital that provides prepaid debit cards to directly deliver support to survivors of gun violence and their families, promoting healing post-victimization and preventing re-injury. 
• QLatinx, a grassroots racial, social and gender justice organization serving central Florida’s at-risk LGBTQIA+ and Latinx communities that fosters meaningful relationships to promote safety and prevent gun violence.

In June, as part of our Wear Orange campaign, the fund once again partnered with community organizations to provide support to 10 unique Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design projects across the country, which were completed in collaboration with local Moms Demand Action chapters. These spaces include Carpenter Art Garden, which brings healthy food and art to help prevent violence, and Let’s Thrive Baltimore’s Healing Garden, which gives people in a community highly impacted by gun violence a space to rest, reflect and honor their loved ones. 

Then, in October, all 50 current Everytown Support Fund grantees and our Atlanta micro-cohort of grantees attended the Community Safety Fund’s training institute ahead of the 10th annual Cities United conference. At the convening, grantees had the opportunity to learn from each other and Community Safety Fund advisory board members and participate in tailored trainings delivered by partners at Urban Peace Institute and the Center for Civic Innovation. The gathering drew more than 90 attendees from across the country, who also had the opportunity to celebrate their many accomplishments together. This was the culmination of a year of capacity-building offerings from the Community Safety Fund, which also included a micro-cohort training program led by Roca, a keynote at the Harris County Department of Health’s annual conference and trainings at the National League of Cities and the National Caucus of Black State Legislators.

In 2024, the Community Safety Fund will further expand its grant and capacity-building offerings to support more CVI programs across the country and sustain their life-saving work.

Shifting the Culture and Expanding Our Reach

This year, leaders from the entertainment industry spoke out against gun violence, with advocates in film, television and fashion raising their voices. In February, designer Christian Siriano wore an Everytown “End Gun Violence” t-shirt on the red carpet during his New York Fashion Week show. Then, in the wake of the horrific shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, actor, mother and Nashville resident Melissa Joan Hart demanded lawmakers take action on gun safety during the special legislative session in August. And in November, Everytown Creative Council founder Julianne Moore spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court in support of survivors of intimate partner violence as justices heard oral arguments in the Rahimi case.

Professional sports teams and athletes continued to be leaders in the gun safety movement in 2023 as well. Everytown collaborated with members of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) to produce a public service announcement in support of Be SMART, our secure firearm storage educational program. In the video, current and former WNBA players including Layshia Clarendon, Napheesa Collier, Cheyenne Parker, Rebecca Lobo and Jayne Appel-Marinelli highlighted the importance of storing guns locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition to keep kids safe. 

In the NFL, Chicago Bears offensive lineman Lucas Patrick invited gun violence survivors and their families and friends to each home game this season. The Philadelphia Eagles also hosted an Everytown Community Safety Fund grantee, YEAH Philly, at their practice facilities for a conversation with running back Boston Scott. And 11 players across six NFL teams supported Everytown as part of the “My Cause My Cleats” campaign this year. Baseball teams stood up for gun safety as well: Everytown partnered with the San Francisco Giants on an event at their ballpark, where gun violence prevention advocates from all over the state gathered to celebrate the historic progress they’ve made in California.

Wearing Orange Together

Gun safety was also front of mind this year for musicians. Everytown was invited by musician Tom Odell to join him on his North American tour, where Students Demand Action volunteers tabled at shows across 12 U.S. cities. Aly & AJ raised money on tour through our partner Propeller. Everytown also partnered once again with music festivals like Governors Ball, Ohana Music Festival, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza to spread the word about gun safety to young people.

In June, people from all across the country came together to participate in the ninth annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day and Wear Orange weekend. Thousands of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers hosted more than 450 Wear Orange events and activities in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. And more than 1,500 partner organizations, cultural figures, corporate brands and elected officials joined in the campaign. More than 350 landmarks, including the White House, were illuminated orange. Vice President Harris marked Wear Orange at an event in Springfield, Virginia, while Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff participated in the Washington Mystics’ Wear Orange Youth Basketball Clinic with Shannon Watts. Former President Barack Obama, Jimmy Kimmel, Lily Collins, Pearl Jam and all five hosts of The View marked Wear Orange alongside brands including Rolling Stone, Penguin Random House, and more than 65 professional sports teams and members of the Everytown Athletic Council.

Expanding Our Work With Partners

We know addressing a public health crisis this complex takes all of us, and throughout 2023 we forged strong partnerships with other organizations in the gun violence prevention space and those working across parallel movements to make the greatest impact possible. 

We raised our voices to denounce the nexus between white supremacy, racism and violence throughout the year and marked the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington with more than 60 national organizations.

To address the intersection between gun violence and the LGBTQ+ community, we joined Equality Federation at their leadership conference to observe the seven-year mark of the tragic shooting at Pulse Nightclub along with our partners in the Pulse Coalition. And throughout the year, we continued building steadfast partnerships with organizations like the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and more. 

There’s no doubt that our collective voices have created new and powerful opportunities for progress on gun violence. Everytown’s collaborative efforts over the past year reflect our commitment to building strong partnerships and amplifying diverse voices in the fight against gun violence and underscore the importance of unity in addressing the complex and multifaceted challenges posed by this issue.

Expanding Our Work in Latinx Communities 

Each year, more than 4,700 Latinx people die from gun violence in the U.S. — an average of 13 deaths every day. 

Everytown continued our work to not only listen to Latinx communities across the country on this issue, but to actively lift Latinx voices in our work to keep communities safe from gun violence. Throughout the year, Everytown Support Fund continued to hold Latinx listening sessions in cities including Chicago, Orlando and Los Angeles. And to help advance this important work, we forged new partnerships with other Latinx-focused organizations, including Hispanic Federation, League of United Latin American Citizens and Hispanics in Philanthropy.

Promoting Secure Firearm Storage

This year, Be SMART advocates, community partners, school boards, law enforcement officials, gun owners and non-gun owners came together to protect children and teens by promoting secure gun storage. And thanks to the hard work of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers nationwide, more than 10 million students across the country now live in a district that requires schools to educate parents about secure storage. This is a monumental victory for our Be SMART program — five times more students now receive secure storage information than did in 2021, and this incredible milestone is a testament to the years of dedicated local advocacy by our volunteers.

The Be SMART program also continued to build innovative partnerships with organizations at the national, regional and local levels in 2023. Most recently, thanks to the persistence of Alaskan volunteers, the Association of Alaska School Boards adopted a statewide resolution for public schools and school boards to encourage Be SMART education and the distribution of secure storage information. In addition, Be SMART’s ongoing partnership with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives reached more than 20 cities this year, distributing hundreds of gun locks and key information about secure storage to thousands of people. 

Be SMART volunteers also fostered meaningful collaborations with the healthcare industry this year, partnering with Nationwide Children’s Hospitals of New Orleans, Toledo and Alabama, as well as Regional One Health in Memphis. Be SMART also announced formal partnerships with the State of Minnesota and the local health department of New Orleans.

Conducting Groundbreaking Research

Throughout 2023, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund’s research provided critical analysis and solutions for advocates, policymakers, and journalists, expanding the scope of gun violence research to cover innovative topics such as the impact of summer youth employment programs, and the prevalence of gun dealers in residential communities, among many others. 

This year, Everytown Support Fund released a number of groundbreaking reports underscoring the impact of specific gun safety policies on gun violence across the country. Here are some of the highlights:

Everytown Support Fund also released reports over the last year that detail the daily toll of gun violence and its impact on our communities. These reports draw attention to the specific factors that could be driving increases in gun violence across the country. Here are some of the highlights:

What’s Ahead in 2024

2024 will doubtlessly be a historic year for our movement as we build on the progress we made in 2023 and continue to show Americans we have the solutions our communities need to address this crisis. We will continue to advance gun safety at every level of government, in the courts and in our culture with a movement that is stronger, more diverse and more inclusive than ever before.

All of us at Everytown, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action are ready to do everything in our power to reelect the strongest gun safety presidential administration in history, protect our gun sense majority in the Senate, rebuild a gun sense majority in the House, and elect gun sense champions up and down the ballot. We’ll build on the successes of our innovative messaging research in order to provide our candidates with the most effective, compelling message frames that leverage the electoral strength of gun safety to motivate key constituencies in battleground races. And we’ll continue to prove that gun safety is the issue to run and win on because when it comes to keeping our families and communities safe, what unites us is far greater than what divides us.

Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers, working shoulder to shoulder with survivors of gun violence, will continue to show up at statehouses, community events and on the campaign trail in our ubiquitous red tees — making sure our voices are heard everywhere decisions about our safety are made. 

And from holding the gun industry accountable in the court of law and in the court of public opinion to building stronger relationships with partners to forge new paths in this work, we’ll spend 2024 breaking new ground in the fight to end gun violence.

Together, we’ll continue to save lives — and nothing will stand in our way.