“Never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.” – Hillary Clinton
This has been a hard week for our movement and for our nation.
The result in the Presidential election just makes Brady and its mission more essential as we work to hold the line on the lifesaving advancements we have made, and continue our march across the states for lifesaving gun reforms.
Although we are incredibly disappointed that a candidate who ran his campaign on a message of hate, violence, intimidation, and fear will be the next President of the United States, that won’t stop us from fighting with everything we’ve got for the safer America wall want and deserve. Trump's election isn’t the end of that fight. It's just the beginning.
But together, we can send Donald Trump and the new Republican Congress a message that their opposition to lifesaving gun reform won’t fly, and that we will not allow them to roll back any of the progress we have already made together.
It’s also important to remember, that while the results of the Presidential race and a number of others were clearly not the ones we wanted, we made some critical progress during this election.
When Gun Violence Prevention was on the ballot, we did extremely well. We also won in a number of key races across the country where candidates ran against the corporate gun lobby – and I want to list just a few:
* In three out of four states where our issue was directly on the ballot we won– and we came very close in Maine as well.
* While the House and Senate races did not turn out as we might have liked, we did have dominated:
* In the Senate: Kamala Harris, CA made issue front and center and won big.
* In Nevada, a true battleground state where we also won an initiative to expand Brady background checks to all gun sales, Catherine Cortez Masto was outspoken on the issue and defeated Assemblyman Joe Heck who received a strong A rating from the NRA.
* In the House, in a traditionally conservative Florida District political newcomer Stephanie Murphy won with our endorsement over 12-term incumbent, Gun Lobby lapdog John Mica.
* CA Proposition 63, also known as the Safety for All initiative, is important progress when it comes to cracking down on ‘bad apple’ gun dealers. Most notably, Prop. 63 will help identify and prosecute straw buyers and cut down on illegal gun trafficking by requiring the reporting of lost and stolen guns. Brady’s 28 California chapters have led grassroots efforts in support of Proposition 63. The initiative will build upon significant legislation signed into California law this year.
An historic eight gun violence prevention bills were signed into by Governor Jerry Brown in 2016.
* WA Initiative 149 will allow either police or family members to file a petition if someone with a gun is presenting a danger to themselves or others. If the court finds the subject of the petition to be in “significant danger of causing personal injury to self or others with a firearm,” the court could temporarily order the removal of guns and other weapons by the state.
This election, while disappointing in many ways, still shows that we are making real progress
day-by-day and step-by-step.
As long as we have the support of 93% Americans, 90% Republicans, 4 out of 5 gun owners, we can never and will never rule out possibility of federal change.
That’s why strategy is so important. We will not stop those efforts to:
• Talk About Guns and ASK about guns, our campaigns that can save thousands of lives every year by changing culture and social norms.
• Stop Bad Apple Gun Dealers, which, regardless of who is in the White House or Congress, has the enormous potential to reduce gun violence in our most dangerous cities across the country.
• Hold negligent and irresponsible gun dealers accountable through our groundbreaking legal action.
• Use our powerful grassroots network to effect policy change at every level of government, including by building the momentum locally and state-by-state, where ballot initiatives have been very successful.
We have the potential to dramatically reduce the number of gun deaths over the next four years regardless of who is President or who is in charge of Congress.
Social change is messy. The important thing is not let any unexpected disappointment, however large, distract us from our mission.
As long as we have the support of 93% Americans, 90% Republicans, 4 out of 5 gun owners, we can never and will never rule out possibility of federal change.
That’s why strategy is so important. We will not stop those efforts to:
• Talk About Guns and ASK about guns, our campaigns that can save thousands of lives every year by changing culture and social norms.
• Stop Bad Apple Gun Dealers, which, regardless of who is in the White House or Congress, has the enormous potential to reduce gun violence in our most dangerous cities across the country.
• Hold negligent and irresponsible gun dealers accountable through our groundbreaking legal action.
• Use our powerful grassroots network to effect policy change at every level of government, including by building the momentum locally and state-by-state, where ballot initiatives have been very successful.
We have the potential to dramatically reduce the number of gun deaths over the next four years regardless of who is President or who is in charge of Congress.
Social change is messy. The important thing is not let any unexpected disappointment, however large, distract us from our mission.
Yes, we are shocked and hurt. Let’s turn that pain into a resolve and passion for change.
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