Today’s Action: Common sense gun reform laws NOW

A spree of gun violence in California the past few days. Last week, a shooter at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita killed two students and injured three before killing himself with a semiautomatic handgun. On Saturday in San Diego, a father killed his wife and three sons before killing himself; the fourth son, a 9-year-old, is in critical condition. On Sunday in Fresno, a shooter killed four and injured six at a family football watch party…the 370th mass shooting in the United States in 2019.

And here’s the worst catch: mass shootings represent less than 2% of gun deaths per year. So even as a Walmart in Oklahoma made the news again yesterday with another shooting this year, we know the problem runs so much deeper than what the headlines can tell us.

Republicans have refused to allow the possibility of even the most common sense gun protections, but even Mitch McConnell and Trump have floated the possibility of supporting background check laws. And states have the power to prohibit domestic abusers from purchasing guns, requiring concealed weapon permits, enforce waiting periods and background checks, and more.

Today’s action is to tackle gun violence with targeted phone calls where they’re needed most:

• Tell Republicans in the Senate to pass HR 8, the Background Checks Act of 2019. It passed the house in February, but Mitch McConnell has let it collect dust on his desk without allowing a vote. He needs to be pressured by his own party.
• Visit the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence to view your state’s gun violence ranking, and recommended improvements to the law. Then, call or email your state legislators and demand those improvements in your state. Even California, which earned an ‘A’ grade, has many badly-needed improvements, some of which might have prevented the tragedies of this past week.

Every other country in the world can tell us that we can do so much better to stop gun violence. And we won’t stop working until we achieve it.