After Gun Safety Candidates Win Big in Virginia, Giffords Announces it Will Adopt the Highway Outside the National Rifle Association Headquarters
With NRA mired in corruption and scandals, Giffords follows election victories with vow to continue cleaning up the NRA’s mess
November 18, 2019— Gun safety candidates across Virginia cleaned house this November by sending home longtime National Rifle Association (NRA) allies in the General Assembly. Now Giffords , the gun safety organization co-founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, announced the adoption of Waples Mill Road outside the headquarters of the NRA as the organization’s leaders deal with allegations of corruption and scandal. Members, partners, and advocates of Giffords will keep the Fairfax road clear of trash while the NRA continues to confront internal messes from decades of trying to intimidate politicians into inaction on gun safety.
“The NRA is mired in numerous lawsuits and multiple scandals—the least we could do is clean up their neighborhood,” said Peter Ambler, executive director at Giffords. “While NRA leaders and lobbyists focused on keeping power at all costs and blocking progress, we were building a gun safety movement in their backyard. Virginians fed up with the constant worry of gun violence sent a new wave of leaders to the capitol to clean up the mess and pass legislation that will keep them safe. Looking ahead, there is still work to do to end the NRA’s corrupting influence on our political system and make progress to save lives. Any Virginian fed up are more than welcome to grab an orange vest and help Giffords clean up the NRA’s mess.”
Giffords spent the past several months supporting 40 candidates in Virginia who put gun safety front and center in their General Assembly bids. In total, nearly 60 percent of Giffords-backed candidates won their state legislative races.
The adopted highway, Virginia Highway 665 in Fairfax, called Waples Mill Road, runs directly in front of the headquarters of the NRA. As part of its highway adoption, Giffords will clean the highway twice a year for a three-year period. For adopting the highway, a Virginia Department of Transportation sign will signify the adoption by Giffords. Ahead of the Virginia statehouse elections, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords hosted a gathering outside the headquarters on the same highway with former Governor Terry McAuliffe.
To support the robust slate of gun safety champions, Giffords PAC launched an innovative $300,000 digital ad campaign to support gun safety champions that ran statewide with heavy focuses in the Northern Virginia, Richmond, and Virginia Beach areas. The campaign aimed to turn out Democratic voters for whom gun safety is a motivating factor in the wake of galling inaction by the Republican leadership during the recent special session.