Shannon Watts

Editor's note: IndyStar is publishing two op-eds related to gun laws in America. One makes the case for protecting gun rights. This one explains the efforts in advancing a gun safety agenda nationwide.

The NRA wants us to believe that its agenda of guns for anyone, anywhere, any time is a done deal, and that no progress has been made in the fight for common-sense gun reform. The truth is, a lot has changed since the NRA last descended on Indianapolis for its annual convention five years ago. That’s why I’m in town this weekend to send a different message: The NRA is wrong.

Op-ed:'Firearms are a way of life for many Americans'

The day after the Sandy Hook School shooting in 2012, I founded Moms Demand Action from my kitchen table in Zionsville. A little more than a year later, when the NRA came to town for its annual convention, a small but fierce and committed group of volunteers — primarily mothers — showed up to hold it accountable. We’ll show up this year, too, but so much has changed. In the last five years, the NRA’s power has shrunk — while we’ve grown. Our nearly 6 million supporters, more than 350,000 donors and army of volunteers in every state have enabled us to go toe to toe with the gun lobby, and we’re winning.

More than a dozen states, including Indiana, now have Red Flag laws, which enable families to seek help from courts to temporarily remove guns from people who are a danger to themselves or others, and Congress is considering related federal legislation. In 2018 alone, 20 states passed stronger gun laws, and nine were signed into law by Republican governors. We’ve worked to close background check loopholes, pass Red Flag laws, prohibit bump stocks and elect leaders who will vote for common-sense gun legislation once in office. We’ve stopped 90 percent of the bad bills NRA lobbyists put forward in statehouses, and we stopped the gun lobby’s priority legislation from making it to the president’s desk since Donald Trump’s election in 2016. And we’ve run for office ourselves—nearly 40 of our survivors and volunteers campaigned in 2018, and 17 of them won.

Meanwhile, the NRA is in crisis, wracked by political and financial scandals. It’s struggling to justify its ties to Russia and an admitted Kremlin agent and purported lifetime NRA member, Maria Butina, who will be sentenced the same day President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence speak in Indianapolis. NRA leaders are struggling to answer why they’ve spent their members’ dues on exorbitant salaries for spokespeople, sweetheart deals to NRA insiders and frivolous fees to outside agencies. In fact, the NRA could even lose its tax-exempt non-profit status due to years of corrupt practices.

The NRA is currently the subject of multiple governmental and regulatory inquiries that have diminished its political clout. Maybe that’s why, in the most recent reporting year, contributions to the NRA were down more than $26 million and membership dues were down more than $35 million.

Although the NRA bills itself as the voice of American gun owners, it’s increasingly become a fringe group for gun rights extremists rather than the hunters and sportsmen it claims to represent. For a long time, the NRA used its money and influence to block the policies that have the potential to keep us all safe.

An A-rating from the NRA used to be a badge of honor, but now it’s a scarlet letter, alerting voters that a lawmaker or candidate is out of touch. And poll after poll shows that the majority of gun owners, including Hoosiers, support the same common-sense policies we fight so hard to pass.

Everytown and Moms Demand Action are holding NRA leaders and allies accountable as we work to advance a gun safety agenda in Washington and in statehouses and boardrooms across the country. The NRA used to be a power broker, but now it’s just broken. The gun sense majority is now louder than the vocal minority of gun extremists.

Don’t listen to anyone who says nothing has been done since Sandy Hook. So much has been accomplished to prevent the gun lobby from writing our nation’s gun laws. And we’re just getting started.

Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and a mom of five.

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