Moms Demand Action and Everytown launch campaign to empower voters following the horrors of Parkland

Activists pressure politicians to act on gun control

Activist organizations have renewed calls for gun control in the US in the wake of the school shooting in Florida.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, together with Everytown for Gun Safety, launched a campaign on Friday which it says will “empower voters to find out where candidates stand on gun safety”.

“Throw them out” will target members of Congress who are “beholden to the gun lobby”, Moms Demand Action said. They’ve set up five steps people can follow to pressure lawmakers, including how to get politicians on the record as committing to stricter gun control and a tool to encourage friends to vote.

The campaign uses a Washington Post interactive to help people track donations by the National Rifle Association. It means voters can understand which of their representatives have received money from the lobbying organization.

Moms Demand Action is aiming to elect politicians who will fight for gun safety and “throw out” those who oppose stricter gun laws.

Indivisible, the progressive organization made up of thousands of groups across the country, is pursuing another line – encouraging people to pressure their members of congress to oppose the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. That bill would allow anyone with a concealed carry permit to carry a hidden weapon across state lines.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Indivisible’s call to pressure senators. Photograph: Screengrab from Indivisible.org

The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act passed the House of Representatives on 6 December 2017, and the Senate is expected to vote on it this year. Indivisible has produced a sample script for people to call their senators and express opposition to the legislation.

Meanwhile a petition on MoveOn, which calls for military-style assault weapons to be banned, had attracted 122,000 signatures by midday on Friday.

There have already been eight fatal school shootings in 2018.

What we’re reading

• Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, has written in the Guardian about the Florida shooting. “We must demand that our lawmakers do more to end the crisis of gun violence in our schools, in our homes and in public places,” Watts writes. “As voters, we have the power to elect lawmakers who reflect our values on gun violence, especially as they pertain to our children. It is time for us to put our elected officials on notice – if lawmakers stand with the gun lobby, and against public safety, then we will use our power and throw them out.”



• The coming midterm elections are “shaping up to be one of the most potentially dramatic in recent history for Latino voters”, writes Giovanni Rodriguez at Forbes. Rodriguez says Voto Latino, an organization which aims to empower Latino voters, could have a big influence come November, with its “Go Local” program. “Voto Latino has been courting a young millennial following with an especially timely focus on young women,” Rodriguez says. The organization will hope to drive young people to the polls.