Giffords Partners With Top Presidential Candidates, Launches Unprecedented Gun Safety President Video Series
On start of the new school year, first video is on the epidemic of gun violence in schools
In the coming weeks, Giffords will roll out more of the series giving candidates the chance to speak to different themes
Washington, DC — The top Democratic candidates for president have come together as part of a new #GunSafetyPresident video series with Giffords , the gun violence prevention organization led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The campaign launches today to make sure the American people hear from the Democratic candidates for President about the issue keeping people up at night and dominating discussion at kitchen tables across the country—the crisis of gun violence.
As today marks the first full week of September with American children heading back to school, Giffords’ new #GunSafetyPresident series starts with a first video—top Democratic candidate candidates speaking out about the epidemic of gun violence and school shootings that have become all too commonplace in American life. During the 2017–2018 school year, 4.1 million students endured at least one lockdown.
This first video makes a clear statement—kids deserve to be safe at school and America deserves a #GunSafetyPresident. A six-figure buy will put the video in front of key voters, including in Houston ahead of the Democratic debate this Thursday evening. Today’s launch marks the beginning of an extensive effort by Giffords to elevate gun safety as a voting issue in the primary and frame the general election as a referendum on gun safety.
Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords:
“Our Gun Safety President campaign frames a critical and historic choice for our nation. We can continue with the corrupt leadership of Donald Trump, who has taken millions from the NRA while opposing gun safety policies—or we can forge a new path and elect a gun safety president who’s willing to stand up to the gun lobby and protect our kids and communities from gun violence. This campaign will give Americans a closer look at just how committed the candidates running against Trump are in the fight to save lives.”
Over the next month, this pioneering campaign will let Americans hear more from the candidates on the major issues and themes on gun violence. On October 2, 2019, Giffords and March For Our Lives will host a presidential forum dedicated to addressing gun violence in America in Las Vegas.
School shootings are a uniquely American crisis that exact a heavy toll on students, both in lives lost and in psychological trauma experienced by survivors.
- A student’s chance of dying in a school shooting recently reached its highest level in at least 25 years.
- Almost one million high school students can legally purchase an AR-15, the firearm used in many of the deadliest mass shootings.
- During the 2017–2018 school year, 4.1 million students endured at least one lockdown.
- Black children are 10 times more likely than white children to be fatally shot by a gun. Every year, more than three million children witness gun violence.
Gun deaths in the United States have reached their highest level in almost 40 years, with nearly 40,000 Americans killed by a gun in 2017. The ripple effects of this crisis have been felt by communities across the country. The American public has been subjected to repeated mass shootings in schools and other civic spaces. Too often, communities of color disproportionately bear the continued impact and trauma of our nation’s gun violence epidemic.
Calls from voters to address gun violence in the Democratic primary continue to deepen.
- Following the 2018 midterms, NBC exit polling found that gun policy ranked as the #2 issue for Democratic voters, behind health care and ahead of the economy and immigration.
- The 2018 midterms saw the highest participation of young voters aged 18–29 in the past 25 years, with gun violence and the fear of school shootings a top issue driving their decision to vote in 2018.
- Democrats in the 2018 election ran and won back the House of Representatives in part becasue of their focus on robust gun violence prevention platforms, which included a 22-fold increase from the last midterms in the number of ad spots promoting safer gun laws.