ACTION ALERT: Tell Your Senators
To Act to End Gun Violence
Public Citizen
(May 2, 2022) — We’re still recovering from this week’s massacre in Uvalde, Texas. But we’ve already seen the gun lobby’s favorite politicians crawl out of the woodwork to blame something — anything — other than easy access to firearms:
- Rep. Jim Jordan thinks we should look at putting more security guards in schools
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene blames medication and thinks we should “return to God”
- And Sen. Ted Cruz has a novel idea: The way to cut down on school shootings is for each school to only have one door!
But while these members of Congress may be hard to convince, commonsense reforms like stronger background checks are extremely popular across the country.
We must use our anger and frustration to demand the Senate pass improvements to the background check system. The Senate cannot be allowed to continue letting tragedies go by while sitting on their hands and doing nothing!
It’s clear that we have a gun violence crisis in this country. But we also have a cowardice crisis in this country. Too many senators are scared of the gun lobby and vocal extremists who argue for no restrictions on guns whatsoever.
And so two bipartisan bills are currently stalled in the Senate: The Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021 (H.R. 1446) and the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 (H.R. 8).
It’s in moments like these — where the vast majority of the country knows with moral clarity what must be done — that we must band together and use our collective voice.
ACTION: Email your senators right away
Tell Your Senators:
Act Now to Stop Gun Violence
There are two highly popular, commonsense bills currently sitting in the Senate that would strengthen the criminal background check system for gun purchases.
The Senate must pass these bills immediately to save lives and help prevent future gun violence massacres. Tell your senators to support these bills right away:
THE LETTER
I’m sick of the growing epidemic of gun violence in this country — you must pass legislation to expand the criminal background check system immediately.
The House passed two bills, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021 (H.R. 1446) and the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 (H.R. 8), which would create highly popular, commonsense protections against people who are looking to commit gun violence.
Why hasn’t the Senate passed them? How many more people need to die before the Senate takes action?
Please, do the right thing: Support these bills, push your colleagues to join you, and get these bills passed as soon as possible.
The Gun Industry’s Depraved Profits
Robert Weissman / Public Citizen
(May 27, 2022) — There was a time — not that long ago — when America’s gun manufacturers did not advertise assault weapons to the general public.
But for the past 20 years or so, the gun industry has been aggressively marketing military-grade munitions to the American people — with ads specifically invoking race-based fear, twisted notions of masculinity, and distorted ideas about “patriotism.”
This has fed some very bad and deadly trends:
• The United States is the only country on the entire planet with more guns (at least 400 million and counting) than people (335 million). No other country has even half as many guns per capita as we do.
- The number of guns manufactured in America has nearly tripled over the past two decades, from 3.9 million in 2000 to 11.3 million in 2020. (And it’s not as if guns wear out like light bulbs, refrigerators, or cars.)
- We endure more mass shootings than all other developed countries combined. It’s not even close.
- The frequency — and body count — of mass shootings has increased as well.
- 13 of the 20 deadliest mass shootings since 1982 happened in just the past decade.
- There were 118 school shootings in 2018, doubling the previous record of 59. Then 119 in 2019. Then 114 in 2020. Then 249 (not a typo) in 2021. And already 137 so far in 2022 (with more than half the year still to go).
- The 3 deadliest years for school shootings in the past half-century are 2018, 2021, and 2022 (which, again, isn’t quite halfway over yet).
- Guns have become the leading cause of death among children in our country. Not disease. Not malnutrition. Not accidents. (Auto accidents had been the leading cause of death among children for decades until overtaken by guns in 2020.)
And all the while, gun industry profits have exploded.
Look, America’s gun manufacturers may well be beyond listening to reason. There are, after all, more people to scare — and more profits to be made — no matter the carnage. But let’s make them hear us — our pain, our fury, our disgust — anyway.
Tell America’s Gun Manufacturers:
You have made America exceptional in the most perverted way possible. Tens of thousands of Americans — fourth graders, teachers, grandmothers, people shopping for groceries, people praying, people dancing, people who love and are loved, people — are taken from us year after year after year. And you are part of the problem. Stop marketing assault weapons to the general public. Stop glorifying them. Stop advertising them as a sign of masculinity. Better yet, stop even manufacturing them in the first place. Haven’t you made enough money? Haven’t enough of your fellow Americans paid with their very lives? Add your name now.
ACTION ALERT: Tell the Senate to Eliminate the Filibuster and Pass Gun Safety Reform!
People For the American Way
In America we’ve come to expect the haunting and harrowing cycle of inaction from elected officials after mass shooting incidents. And like clockwork in the days following, those on the Right decry any attempts to even discuss commonsense gun reform legislation as a way to prevent future tragedies – choosing instead to point the finger at anything but guns as the problem and offering no solutions in the process.
We must explicitly reject these efforts to distort and distract from the reality of the situation we’re facing. If we’re too timid to even discuss solutions such as commonsense gun reform at a time like this, we are doomed to experience future tragedies as the cycle inevitably repeats itself.
The time for action is NOW. Unless the filibuster is eliminated, we can and should expect tragedies like this to continue.
Months after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, Congress took up gun background checks with bipartisan support. The bill died on the Senate floor despite majority support because it failed to override a filibuster.
Contrary to what some politicians say, the filibuster does not “encourage consensus.” If it did, a measure with near-universal support like gun background checks would have passed years ago. Instead, the filibuster is the final refuge of obstructionists who seek to block any and all sensible reform.
How many more mass shootings will happen before we abolish the filibuster?
ACTION: Tell the Senate: end the filibuster and pass commonsense gun reform!
Thank you for all that you do and for your advocacy in making our nation a safer place.
Gun Violence Is Out of Control.
Don’t Allow the Filibuster to Block Reform
(May 27, 2022) — We are reeling from the senseless slaying of children in Texas, and we will not tolerate “thoughts and prayers” from our elected leaders who can do something about this RIGHT NOW.
Background checks have proven to work, and the overwhelming majority of the American people (90% in most polls) want Congress to pass them.
But that does not mean it will happen, due to the Senate filibuster — where a vocal minority can hold up any legislation that does not have 60 senators to bring it up to a vote.
After the Sandy Hook massacre, Congress in 2013 took up gun background checks with bipartisan support. The bill died on the Senate floor despite majority support, because it failed to override a filibuster.
The filibuster does not “encourage consensus,” or else something with near-universal support like gun background checks would have passed years ago. Instead, it’s the final refuge of obstructionists who seek to block any and all sensible reform. How many more mass shootings will happen until we abolish the filibuster?
Sign and send the petition to your Democratic US Senator: We must end the filibuster, or the Senate will never pass sensible gun safety reform to stop these mass shootings.
Participating Organizations
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
Beyond the Bomb
Broward for Progress
CREDO Mobile
Daily Kos
DemCast USA
Demand Progress
Lede Progress
People For the American Way
Progress America
TakeItBack.Org
