Women Against Gun Violence

I’m feeling empowered and inspired by the students of Parkland and students across the nation who are demanding a ban on assault style weapons and crying out for gun control. Yes, they’ve said it and I’m repeating it … gun control.

For years, in an effort to reach out to moderate gun owners, gun violence prevention organizations have refrained from using the term gun control and have, instead, used phrases like “gun safety legislation” and “strong and effective gun legislation.”

Moderate gun owners have, indeed, come to support — as does a significant majority of Americans — universal background checks and a ban on assault-style weapons. But has this support come from a change in our language or because the daily slaughter of our children and families […]

This morning I was watching House Speaker Paul Ryan at his weekly press conference. When questioned about what the House was doing to address gun violence in our country, Ryan replied that the House had already passed a Fix NICS bill and that it was currently in the Senate.

Sounds good, right? But the devil is in the details.

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is the U.S. background check system for determining if a prospective firearms buyer is eligible or not eligible to buy.

The Devil In The Details: The Fix NICS bill passed by the House and now in the Senate does NOT expand the background check system and close loopholes. Instead, it offers incentives for federal and state authorities to comply with existing […]

Media coverage of gun violence shapes public perceptions and opinions. We routinely see that the media — both print and broadcast — shifts the stories of gun violence to motive, mental health, arming school personnel, and responsibility of law enforcement, and away from the easy accessibility of firearms that makes our country so dangerous for our children, families, and communities.

You can help shape media coverage and public opinion and play a critical role in gun violence prevention by writing Letters To The Editor!

Here are some suggestions from two Women Against Gun Violence members who have had several letters about gun violence published in the Los Angeles Times:

• Submit a letter quickly, no later than 24 hours after a story appears
• Be sure you follow the […]
  

It’s happened again. 17 more children are shot dead at school. Many are injured.

The spin has already begun as gun proponents, the President of the United States, and other policymakers turn the conversation to mental health and away from the easy accessibility of guns and weapons of war. But let’s clear something up right away — mental illness is not a significant risk factor for or a predictor of interpersonal violence. In fact, most people with mental illness are victims of crime and not the perpetrators. We are not the only industrialized country with people with mental illness but we are the only industrialized country that has easy accessibility of guns and weapons of war that result in repeated massacres of our children and families.

With […]

As Women Against Gun Violence enters its 25th year in its fight to end gun violence, we are proud of our accomplishments.  We have helped pass legislation that:

• Removed junk guns from our streets
• Banned assault weapons
• Requires locking devices to be sold with all handguns
• Requires firearms dealers to record ammunition sales
• Requires background checks of firearms-dealer employees
• Bans high capacity magazines
• Requires gun owners to keep their guns locked up in their homes
• And now working with the City of Los Angeles to require the posting of suicide prevention information in gun stores and ranges

Instrumental to these efforts are the many gun violence survivors who have shared — with us, the media, and our policymakers — the real life consequences of America’s gun […]

Remember Sandy Hook today not by taking a moment of silence
but by taking a moment to make a phone call or send an email!

Honor With Action!

Five years ago today, 20 elementary school children were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Are you going to a memorial? Are you observing a moment of silent? Are you offering your thoughts and prayers to the families and community still reeling with loss?

Here’s our suggestion on what you can do to remember Sandy Hook.

Make a phone call! Make many phone calls! Make them again and again! Call your legislators, call your family, call your friends, call your neighbors! Make sure they all call too! Because Congress continues to pass the very gun laws that […]

I know it is easy to get discouraged. Just yesterday there was another mass shooting…this time at an elementary school. It has been a deadly couple of months that include the shooting in Las Vegas and the massacre in Sutherland Springs.

But here are some other things that are easy.

Calling your legislators is easy.
Emailing your legislators is easy.
Sharing this email with 5 of your friends is easy.
Writing and mailing postcards is easy.

So for the next few days let’s all do these easy things that will help prevent gun violence.

Call your legislators — local, state, and federal — and let them know you want strong gun safety legislation!

• Tell them you want them to BAN BUMP STOCKS! (Bump stocks have been banned in California since […]
  

Gun violence IS PREVENTABLE!

Here’s how:

CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS AND CALL AGAIN!
CALL 5 FRIENDS AND ASK THEM TO CALL THEIR LEGISLATORS!
AND THEN ASK THEM TO CALL 5 FRIENDS!

Call your legislators — local, state, and federal — and let them know you want strong gun safety legislation!

• Tell them you want them to BAN BUMP STOCKS!
• Tell them you want them to VOTE YES ON UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECKS ON ALL GUN SALES!
• Tell them you want them to VOTE NO ON NATIONAL RECIPROCITY!
• Tell them you want them to BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS!
• Tell them you want them to VOTE NO ON LEGISLATION WEAKENING REGULATION ON SILENCERS AND ARMOR PIERCING BULLETS!

To get the names and contact information for your legislators, text message your zip code to 520-200-2223. […]

A few weeks ago I ordered a bracelet on line that arrived in the mail this weekend. It is engraved with the mantra to Wake Up! Kick A**! Repeat! I thought of all of you, my fellow activists, who wake up every morning ready and willing to make our communities safer by preventing gun violence!

Here are some reminders of your recent success.

Your calls and emails encouraged Los Angeles City Council Member Mitch Englander to move the City’s suicide prevention motion out of the Public Safety Committee and back before the Los Angeles City Council! We’ll keep you posted so you can join us at the City Council meeting where the motion will be heard.

Your calls and emails encouraged California’s Governor Jerry Brown to sign into […]

Last night America broke another sad record…again. Last night, in Las Vegas, a mass shooting took more lives and injured more people than any previous mass shooting in the United States. At the time of this writing, reports indicate 52 people killed, over 500 wounded – many seriously.

This American terrorist had a cache of guns in his hotel room and was able to shoot concert-goers on the ground from his room’s 32nd floor windows. And while the media focuses on the type of man the terrorist was (a good man until he wasn’t), his age, his history, the shock of his family … here’s what we do know.

Nevada has weak gun laws.

Nevada DOES NOT prohibit the possession of assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

Nevada DOES […]