Your Tax Dollars = Gun Makers’ Profits
Win Without War
(May 29, 2022) — You might be aware that our taxpayer dollars subsidize billions for weapons manufacturers like Raytheon, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, but did you know that we’re financing gun makers too?
Take the Norway-based Nammo Defense Systems, which sells ammunition for AR-15 style rifles — the same type of weapon likely used to murder dozens of children in Uvalde last week — and currently has over $250 MILLION in Pentagon contracts.
Gun manufacturers like Nammo benefit when the world feels unsafe and unstable, and just like their bomb making buddies, these companies are laser-focused on keeping the profits flowing. Even if, to paraphrase Spencer Ackerman, children’s lives today are less important than owning an assault rifle or banning landmines.
With the country rightly outraged over recent shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo, and Laguna Woods, we have a critical opportunity to turn the tide and crack open this feedback loop. And our first chance at this fight is coming up fast with negotiations around a must-pass defense bill heating up.
We know it just takes a single Senator to grind things to a halt to get what they want. That’s why we are pushing tooth and nail for a committed group of senators to say NO to another year of payouts for guns and bombs. We’ve got just a few critical weeks to pull out all the stops and pile on the pressure — and we need you with us!
Gunmakers and weapons manufacturers, along with their lobbyists, have warped the idea of “national security” to sacrifice people for profit and power.
How has this happened? Well, over the years the NRA and other anti-gun control groups have given MILLIONS of dollars to support the campaigns of folks like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) ($442k), Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA-01) ($396k), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) ($340k), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) ($284k), and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ($247k).
It’s a page out of the weapons lobby playbook — and it appears to be working.
But here’s where we remind you that this is ALL a political CHOICE. Congress’ submission to power and profit has been disgraceful. You know it, we know it, and a growing number of people around the country are sick and tired of this violence-first status quo — and right now, that energy is creating a new opportunity to put a crack in the war machine.
That’s why Win Without War is doubling down on our fight to push a growing cohort of brave lawmakers to stop spending where weapons lobbyists and war profiteers want, and start spending to help everyone, everywhere feel safe.
Not many are willing to go up against the enormous influence of mega weapons corporations and their lobbyists, but it’s what our team is built to do. Just this week, with your help we drove mobile billboards around the NRA Annual Meeting in Houston, and with your support we can take them on in Congress, too.
This week another community witnessed a shocking level of violence that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Parents shouldn’t have to fear for their safety when grocery shopping in El Paso, Texas. Families should be able to celebrate a wedding near Rad’a, Yemen without fear of missiles. Going out to have fun at a movie theater, mall, or nightclub shouldn’t carry the risk of gunfire or drone strikes.
Win Without War is committed to building a world where everyone, everywhere, can feel safe and secure. Will you join us?
Thank you for working for peace,
Shayna, Amy, Sam, and the Win Without War team
P.S. Monday is Memorial Day, and a moment to acknowledge the toll that decades of U.S. military misadventures have had on the lives of everyday people who have served. In 2019, our Data & Technology Director Amy Frame shared what this moment means to her, and it is as poignant now as it was then. We invite you to revisit her words today.
Nammo announces new investments in Consolidated Defense.
Why I Say Thank You for Working for Peace
In 2003, my brother-in-law’s little brother Michael was killed while serving in Iraq. He was 25, aggressively friendly, and loved punk rock. He was proud of his service, and by all accounts loved the Iraqi people he worked with during his deployment. His chief complaint was never having enough clean socks. He was killed on the road between Mosul and Tikrit.
His death devastated everyone who knew him. Both Michael’s family and mine have members in the military, but nothing can ever prepare anyone for that knock on the door or that phone call telling you your loved one is never coming home.
I rarely talk about Michael in my anti-war work. It’s painful, but also in the age where the United States fields a relatively small, all-volunteer military, many people simply don’t know servicemembers or their families, so it is easy to feel isolated. But as we approach the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I wanted to share his story — so that I could tell you how much your activism means to me and families like mine. Every email you send and phone call you make means the world to me. Because activists like you give me hope that we can shut down the corrupt and violent system that sends young people to war.
Memorial Day holds a special place not just for families like mine, but for all of us in the anti-war movement. It’s a time for us to reflect on the human costs of war, and to remind ourselves why our work is so urgent.
At Win Without War, we always close our emails with the phrase ‘thank you for working for peace,’ and this weekend I want to reiterate that thank you. We are in a dangerous time and every voice raised matters. Even though our challenges seem overwhelming and the forces for war are mighty, we must not give up — because the costs of war are just too high. Because in these times, we just have to win peace — and when we join together, I think we just might be able to.
Thank you for working for peace,
Amy
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