An American activist living in Switzerland is using Steve Bannon’s upcoming visit to Zurich to raise funds for ‘Everytown For Gun Safety,’ a U.S. lobbying organization focused on gun control.



Erin Zimmerman, a former police officer from Colorado, helms ‘Action Together: Zurich’ (ATZ), a small leftist group for ex-pats and Swiss locals enamored with the anti-Trump ‘resistance.’

The fundraiser, called “Don’t Hate, Donate,” has garnered just over $2,000 and is timed to coincide with Bannon’s March 6 speaking engagement in Zurich.

“We wanted to poke a bit of fun at Steve Bannon,” Zimmerman told The Local. “He is speaking to cause people to be afraid and we want to show this is an opportunity to come together.”

“We have contacted other groups where he will be speaking and we just hope our counter campaign will actually do more good from his presence here than any new damage he could cause.”

ATZ describes itself on Facebook as “an organization of Americans, Swiss, and other nationals in and near Zurich, who are committed to protecting American values currently under threat by the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress.”

Zimmerman told local media she is “ashamed” that children have been forced to lead the push for gun control in the U.S. ‘because adults were not.’

“It should not be the responsibility of our children to demand that we protect them,” she said. “We decided we needed to do something so we started this campaign to say it’s time for commonsense gun laws.”

ATZ subscribes fully to the AstroTurf ‘children’s crusade’ taking place in the U.S., featuring video of a speech by Parkland student activist Emma Gonzalez at the top of the fundraiser page.

“Mr. Bannon briefly worked as an advisor to President Trump and as the Chair of Breitbart,” the fundraiser’s description reads. “In addition to peddling fake news and white nationalism, Mr. Bannon has repeatedly advocated for extremist positions on gun violence — positions radically out of step with those of responsible gun owners and of the overwhelming majority of American people.”

Switzerland boasts the third highest per capita gun ownership in the world behind the United States, but exceeds the U.S. in ‘homicide by gun’ rate by nearly 5%, according to the Washington Post.

According to the same report, the United States ranks 26th in ‘homicide by gun’ per 100,000 residents, behind a slew of nations with much tougher gun ownership regulations, despite Americans owning roughly 300 million firearms by some estimates.

Dan Lyman: Follow @CitizenAnalyst