A coalition of celebrities, activists and policy experts have joined forces to launch NoRA, an initiative hoping to curb the NRA’s influence

Celebrities, including Alec Baldwin, Amy Schumer and Jimmy Kimmel, have added their voices to a new initiative targeting the National Rifle Association.

The stars have partnered with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, policy experts, and various grassroots gun safety organizations to start the No Rifle Association Initiative, which pledges to reduce the NRA’s influence in American politics with demonstrations, boycotts and voter registration efforts.

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The initiative, which uses the hashtag #NoRA, sent an open letter to the National Rifle Association executive vice-president, Wayne LaPierre, on Friday, denouncing his organization’s sway in American politics and promising to hasten gun reform efforts in the wake of the Parkland shooting, where 17 people were killed. The letter accuses the NRA of fighting “every single basic gun reform measure that might have saved lives” and vows to “shine a bright light on what you and your organization do to America”.

More than 130 celebrities and activists have partnered with #NoRA, including Alyssa Milano, Julianne Moore, Tarana Burke, Don Cheadle, Michael Moore, Patton Oswalt, Jill Soloway and Stoneman Douglas student David Hogg, who has been the victim of rightwing attacks since he began to publicly advocate tougher gun safety laws.

In the letter, #NoRA describes itself as a “diverse, non-partisan coalition of activists, artists, celebrities, writers, gun violence survivors and policy experts”. Since the Parkland shooting and last month’s March for Our Lives celebrities such as Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and George Clooney have been increasingly outspoken about what they see as America’s gun violence epidemic.

Schumer, with her cousin, the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, advocated universal background checks among other gun safety measures after a man opened fire at a screening of her film Trainwreck. Shortly after appearing at the White House in 2016, where Barack Obama made an appeal for stricter gun laws, Schumer told Politico she was “sickened by the cowardice” of US senators failing to implement tougher gun legislation and said “their dedication seems to be only to dollar signs for their own pockets”.



“Today we follow in the footsteps of the brave Parkland students and those who have come before to make sure you and those marionettes whose strings you pull hear all the voices who have been hurt by the gun violence you enable,” an excerpt from the letter, obtained by Time, reads. “Today we lift the voices of the children who died because you refused to allow your puppets to vote for mandatory safe storage, trigger locks, assault-weapons bans, or other commonsense devices and protections. Today we speak for the majority of Americans who correctly say your policies are bad for our nation.”

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NoRA has also partnered with organizations such as the Newtown Action Alliance, Rock the Vote, and Guns Down America to bolster its efforts. It is also soliciting donations on its website.

