Gun Safety Is Dominating the Democratic National Convention
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will be the gun safety champions we need in the White House.
I can honestly say that in all my years in politics, I’ve never seen the issue of gun violence play such a large role at a Democratic National Convention.
I’m at the convention in Chicago this week with GIFFORDS, celebrating Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as they prepare to lead the Democratic ticket in November—and, as Governor Walz said, the energy here is electric.
The convention’s themes this year are focused on fighting for our freedoms and for the future. Gun violence prevention sits right at the center of this. Our leaders know this—that’s why gun violence has been mentioned in speeches all three nights so far, including by the keynote speakers: President Joe Biden, President Barack Obama, and Governor Walz.
And it’s why GIFFORDS founder, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, will be speaking on stage later tonight.
We’ve also seen gun violence prevention events occurring throughout the convention week. On Monday, GIFFORDS hosted a press conference with Gabby, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, G-PAC Illinois, and Chicago CRED to discuss the importance of this issue in Chicago, followed by a roundtable that focused on community violence intervention and its effectiveness at reducing violence in our cities.
Adam Skaggs, the vice president of GIFFORDS Law Center, joined Accountable.US and United for Democracy for a discussion about how right-wing extremism has influenced the courts and how it threatens public safety. Gabby and GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown have chatted with partners both in and out of the gun violence prevention space—reminding us all of just how intersectional these issues are.
But we didn’t just stumble into gun violence prevention being a leading issue at the convention. It’s taken years of hard work and persistent efforts by survivors and advocates to get to this point.
GIFFORDS has been in this fight for over 10 years, founded in the wake of Gabby’s attempted assassination and the slaughter of elementary school children in Newtown, Connecticut. And as we’ve watched mass shootings dominate headlines for years—to the point that shootings are the first thing that come to mind with just a mention of the city or place they occurred—this movement has grown bigger and bigger. After all, nearly every American will know a victim of gun violence in their lifetime. Why wouldn’t they want to fight to end these tragedies?
And as the movement has grown, we’ve seen the tides shift. What used to be an issue politicians shied away from, afraid to upset the gun lobby, is now an issue candidates and elected officials use as the foundation of their platforms—and they’ve proven year after year that it’s a winning issue. GIFFORDS’s more than 150 political endorsements this cycle will do the same when they win this November.
For the past three and a half years, Americans have experienced what it’s like to live in a country led by the strongest gun safety administration in US history. President Biden and Vice President Harris have prioritized fighting gun violence, and we’ve seen it in their actions: They passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, and launched the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to tackle this country’s gun violence crisis.
Now, we have a choice to make. Do we want to return to Donald Trump’s America, where he has promised to do whatever the gun lobby asks of him? Or do we want to elect Vice President Harris and Governor Tim Walz to lead us into a better, brighter, safer future?
The choice is ours.
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The gun safety movement is on the march: Americans from different background are united in standing up for safer schools and communities. Join us to make your voice heard and power our next wave of victories.
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