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Everytown for Gun Safety is an American
nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
which advocates for
gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with onl ...
and against gun violence. Everytown was created in 2013 when Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America joined forces. The organization works to "support efforts to educate policy makers, as well the press and the public, about the consequences of gun violence and promote efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals." The group has focused on efforts to require universal background checks on firearms purchases. The organization also produces research and studies on gun violence. Everytown for Gun Safety is largely financed by
Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...
.


History


Origin

Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) was formed in April 2006 during a summit co-hosted by mayors
Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...
of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...
of
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
at New York's mayoral residence,
Gracie Mansion Archibald Gracie Mansion (commonly called Gracie Mansion) is the official residence of the Mayor of New York City. Built in 1799, it is located in Carl Schurz Park, at East End Avenue and 88th Street in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan. ...
. Bloomberg and Menino co-chaired the coalition. The initial group consisted of 15 mayors who signed a statement of principles. By the end of 2014, there were 855 mayors in the coalition. In April 2014, MAIG merged with Moms Demand Action to form Everytown for Gun Safety. The launch of Everytown occurred nearly one year after the U.S. Senate debated a series of changes to federal gun laws in the wake of the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and t ...
, including a failed amendment, sponsored by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D) and Pennsylvania Senator
Pat Toomey Patrick Joseph Toomey Jr. (born November 17, 1961) is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior United States senator for Pennsylvania since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he served three terms as the U.S. representa ...
(R), that would have required background checks for all gun sales taking place at gun shows or over the internet. According to Bloomberg, Everytown was founded to match the
National Rifle Association The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while cont ...
in political influence.


Issues


Background checks

The organization advocates for expanding the background check system for gun buyers through changes in state and federal laws, and supports legislation that would require background checks for all gun sales. The organization also supports state laws requiring the reporting of mental health records to the national background check system.


Assault weapons

Everytown supports banning assault weapons.


Domestic violence

Everytown has supported laws that prohibit domestic abusers from obtaining firearms. Internal research produced by Everytown concludes that states that require background checks for private handgun sales have lower rates of intimate partner gun violence than states that do not require background checks. According to the group, Everytown supported the passage of laws intended to block convicted domestic abusers and people subject to domestic violence restraining orders in six states in 2014: Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.


Preventable injuries

The organization supports gun safety technology and laws requiring safe storage of firearms to prevent accidental child gun deaths, citing the high rate of firearm injuries among American children compared to other countries.


Gun trafficking

The organization also favors strengthening penalties for gun trafficking through the creation of a federal gun trafficking statute.


Tiahrt Amendment

Prior to the inception of Everytown, a priority goal of Mayors Against Illegal Guns was to repeal the
Tiahrt Amendment The Tiahrt Amendment ( ) is a provision of the U.S. Department of Justice 2003 appropriations bill that prohibits the National Tracing Center of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from releasing information from its firea ...
, named after its sponsor, former Congressman Todd Tiahrt (R-KS). Since its passage in 2003 as an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, the Tiahrt Amendment has forbidden the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preve ...
(ATF) from releasing information from its firearm trace database to anyone other than a law enforcement agency or prosecutor in connection with a specific criminal investigation, and any data so released is deemed inadmissible in a civil lawsuit. Representative Tiahrt stated that his amendment intended to protect the privacy of gun owners and to prevent abuse of the data by anyone outside of law enforcement agencies.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns Everytown for Gun Safety is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun control and against gun violence. Everytown was created in 2013 when Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America joined forc ...
sought the repeal of the Tiahrt Amendment for these reasons: * The Tiahrt Amendment restricts access of state and local law enforcement authority to gun trace data, hindering municipal police departments' ability to track down sellers of illegal guns, to investigate gun trafficking patterns, and to make connections between individual gun-related crimes. Mayor Bloomberg has called the Amendment "an insult to the thousands of police officers that face the threat of illegal guns." * The Tiahrt Amendment requires that NICS background check records be destroyed within 24 hours. According to MAIG, this makes it harder for law enforcement authorities to catch law-breaking gun dealers who falsify their records and makes it more difficult to identify and track down straw purchasers who buy guns on behalf of criminals who wouldn't be able to pass a background check or prohibited purchasers who buy firearms themselves due to errors in the background check process. * The Tiahrt Amendment denies the ATF the authority to require dealer inventory checks to detect lost and stolen guns. Under current rules, the ATF can conduct a warrantless search of any licensed gun dealer once per year. Joining Mayors Against Illegal Guns in supporting the repeal of the Tiahrt Amendment were 10 national law enforcement organizations, including the
International Association of Chiefs of Police International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia (United States). It is the world's largest professional association for police The police are a Law enforcement organization, c ...
, the
International Brotherhood of Police Officers International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...
, the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the
Police Executive Research Forum The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) is a national membership organization of police executives primarily from the largest city, county and state law enforcement agencies in the United States. The organization is dedicated to improving polic ...
; state law enforcement associations representing 22 states; and individual police chiefs representing 39 states. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence has pointed out that the ATF under the Bush administration (2001–2008) was unable to produce any evidence that law enforcement officers were harmed by the agency's release of crime gun trace data prior to 2003. In July 2007, after the House Appropriations Committee rebuffed attempts to repeal the amendment, the Senate Appropriations Committee went further, approving a bill that, according to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', "threaten dlaw enforcement officials with prison time for using gun tracing data beyond a specific investigation, say, for identifying and targeting trafficking patterns." Congressman Tiahrt responded to MAIG's position on his amendment in a congressional statement in 2007: Kelly, however, has participated in events calling for the repeal of the Tiahrt Amendment. The ATF under the Obama administration has issued no formal position on the amendment. While a Senator, President Barack Obama stated:
At a time when bloodshed on our streets is on the rise, making sure that our law enforcement officers have all the tools they need to fight crime should be our top priority. But instead of providing those tools, the Tiahrt Amendment ties the hands of police in their effort to halt illegal gun trafficking and sales. I am proud to join the Mayors Against Illegal Guns in their fight against this dangerous legislation. Our communities and the brave men and women who risk their lives everyday to protect us deserve more from Congress.
His administration, however, sought only minor modifications to the amendment during the most recent appropriations cycle.


Constitutional carry

Moms Demand Action has also advocated against so called constitutional carry, also known as permitless carry, unrestricted carry, or Vermont carry, which refers to legislation that legalizes the public concealed or open carry of firearms without a license or permit. On March 21, 2022, Indiana became the 24th state to legalize constitutional carry Notably, Moms Demand Action was initially founded in Indianapolis, Indiana and, even so, the bill was able to pass despite staunch opposition by the organization.


Other issues

Everytown has filed
amicus curiae An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision o ...
briefs in support of New Jersey's
high-capacity magazine ban A high-capacity magazine ban is a law which bans or otherwise restricts high-capacity magazines, detachable firearm magazines that can hold more than a certain number of rounds of ammunition. For example, in the United States, the now-expired Fe ...
, California's may-issue permitting law, and New York's may-issue permitting law. A brief was filed challenging Florida's state preemption law against local firearm ordinances. In July 2018, the organization sought an injunction to block the distribution of blueprints for 3D printed firearms by Defense Distributed. The group also advocated for the prohibition of bump stocks following the
2017 Las Vegas Shooting On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nevada, opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in . From his 32nd-floor suites in the Mandalay Bay hotel, he fired m ...
.


Programs and political activities

In April 2008,
Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
—the largest retailer of firearms in the U.S.—voluntarily adopted a number of new sales practices at the behest of Mayors Against Illegal Guns to "help ensure that guns do not fall into the wrong hands." Senior Vice President J.P. Suarez stated that Walmart signed the 10-point code of the "Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership" to help the corporation "fine tune the things we're already doing and further strengthen our standards." He added, "We hope other retailers will join us in adopting the code." The "Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership" has since become a model for Heeding God's Call, a coalition of faith organizations in Philadelphia that has encouraged local gun dealers to adopt the 10-point code. In 2009, Mayors Against Illegal Guns lobbied against the Thune Amendment on concealed firearms, taking out full paper ads in hundreds of newspapers and directly lobbying then Pennsylvania Senator
Arlen Specter Arlen Specter (February 12, 1930 – October 14, 2012) was an American lawyer, author and politician who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011. Specter was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican fr ...
. The Thune Amendment, often referred to as "Concealed Carry Reciprocity", would have changed federal law to require each U.S. state to recognize permits from all other states. Currently, each state decides which other states' permits they will recognize. The NRA, which supported the amendment, vowed to "score" the vote of legislators. The amendment was defeated 58 to 39, the first time the NRA had lost a vote on the Senate floor in a decade. After the 2011 Tucson shooting in which Representative Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) was injured, the organization started a petition called Fix Gun Checks to require background checks for all gun purchasers, which received 250,000 signatures. The group also released research demonstrating that 18 states had submitted fewer than 100 mental health records to the background check system, and lent its support for the Fix Gun Checks Act, introduced by New York Senator
Charles Schumer Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, hav ...
and Representative
Carolyn McCarthy Carolyn McCarthy ( Cook; born January 5, 1944) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1997 to 2015. She is a member of the Democratic Party. On January 8, 2014, she announced that she would not run for re-elect ...
. The group drove a truck on a two-month tour of the country with planned stops in several states to raise awareness about gun violence. In 2012, the organization worked with retired military leaders to successfully overturn a Congressional amendment prohibiting military commanders and mental health professionals from inquiring about or keeping records of firearms and ammunition in service members' private possession. In April 2013, the organization led efforts to pass legislation in the U.S. Senate to require a background check for all gun sales in commercial settings. Known as the Manchin-Toomey Amendment (Amendment 715 of the 113th Congress), the legislation would have expanded the requirements for conducting background checks to cover all gun sales made over the internet and at gun shows. The amendment ultimately failed to win the 60 votes necessary for passage in the Senate. After the Senate vote, Mayors Against Illegal Guns ran ads in 13 states either in support of Senators who voted to pass the legislation or in opposition to lawmakers who voted against it. The group spent approximately $12 million on these advertisements. Mayors Against Illegal Guns also ran a bus tour, similar to the bus tour it organized following the shooting of Giffords, entitled "No More Names". The No More Names tour visited 25 states in 100 days to build local support for passing gun violence prevention legislation in Congress. ''No More Names'' is a program launched on June 14, 2013 (the six month anniversary of the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and t ...
) with the stated purpose to "pass common-sense laws, including comprehensive background checks, that will reduce gun violence and save lives." The program revolves around a bus tour of twenty-five states in one hundred days starting in
Newtown, Connecticut Newtown is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is part of the Greater Danbury metropolitan area as well as the New York metropolitan area. Newtown was founded in 1705, and later incorporated in 1711. As of the 2020 cens ...
. At each stop "gun violence survivors, mayors, faith leaders, and other community members will read aloud the names of Americans killed with guns since Newtown." This is to encourage members of Congress "to pass common sense gun laws." MAIG organizers issued an apology after speakers mistakenly included the name of
Boston marathon bombing The Boston Marathon bombing was a domestic terrorist attack that took place during the annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Two terrorists, brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs, w ...
perpetrator
Tamerlan Tsarnaev Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev (; October 21, 1986 – April 19, 2013)russian: link=no, Тамерла́н Анзо́рович Царна́ев ; ce, Царнаев Анзор-кIант Тамерлан ; ky, Тамерлан Анзор уул ...
among a list of shooting victims read aloud at a gun control rally in
Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the county seat, seat of Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Merrimack County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third larg ...
—an error noted in the '' New Hampshire Union Leader'' and criticized by the New Hampshire Republican Party, amongst others. Further inspection found that the list also contained the names of at least ten murder suspects including former
Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-lar ...
officer-turned-fugitive
Christopher Dorner Christopher Jordan Dorner (June 4, 1979 – February 12, 2013) was a former officer of the Los Angeles Police Department who, beginning on February 3, 2013, committed a series of shootings in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside Coun ...
. In response, the group issued a statement explaining that it used a list compiled by Slate.com as its source. During the 2014 elections, Everytown endorsed over 100 candidates for office in 28 states. Everytown was active in supporting the passage of
Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a U.S. state, state in the Northwestern United States, Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first President of the United States, U.S. p ...
Initiative 594, a successful
ballot initiative In political science, an initiative (also known as a popular initiative or citizens' initiative) is a means by which a petition signed by a certain number of registered voters can force a government to choose either to enact a law or hold a p ...
that changed Washington State law to require background checks for all gun purchases. According to public records, Everytown's expenditures in support of Initiative 594 total over $3.2 million, and was among the top five contributors to the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the Washington state group formed to support the passage of Initiative 594. Everytown also opposed Washington State Initiative 591, a countermeasure to Initiative 594 supported by gun rights groups. Initiative 594 was approved on November 4, 2014, with 59.3% voting yes and 40.7% voting no. Initiative 591, which appeared on the same ballot, was rejected with 55.3% voting no and 44.7% voting yes. The group also supported the reelection of Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) and
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
State Senators who supported the 2013 passage of gun violence prevention laws in the state, including a law that requires background checks on all gun sales. Following on the organization's successful advocacy of Washington State Initiative 594, the group announced plans to support a similar initiative in
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
. On December 8, 2014, the Nevada initiative qualified to be on that state's 2016 ballot. The initiative passed, but is on hold due to state Attorney General
Adam Laxalt Adam Paul Laxalt (; born August 31, 1978) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 33rd Nevada Attorney General from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Nevada in 2018 ...
's interpretation of the ballot language regarding involvement of the FBI making it unenforceable. On October 4, 2017, the initiative support campaign, Nevadans for Background Checks, filed suit against Laxalt and Governor
Brian Sandoval Brian Edward Sandoval (; born August 5, 1963) is an American politician, academic administrator, and former federal judge who served as the 29th Governor of Nevada from 2011 to 2019. A graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, Sandoval began ...
, demanding that they implement the law. Everytown has announced that it will consider ballot initiative campaigns in
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
,
Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...
, and
Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
. In December 2015, the organization teamed up with the
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...
(NBA) to produce a series of ads calling for an end to gun violence, without offering specific policy recommendations. NBA players featured in the ads included
Stephen Curry Wardell Stephen Curry II ( ; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, ...
and Carmelo Anthony. The ads first aired on Christmas Day that year. Everytown, Moms Demand Action, and Students Demand Action sponsored a gun forum for 2020 presidential candidates at '' The Des Moines Register Political Soapbox'' on August 10, 2019.


Organization


Advisory board

Everytown has an advisory board composed of mayors, business and military leaders, and survivors of gun violence. As of January 2014, the organization's advisory board consisted of the following members: * Art Acevedo — Chief of Police,
Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
* Tom Barrett — former mayor of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...
* Stephen Barton — Survivor of Aurora movie theater shooting *
Michael R. Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...
— Former Mayor of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
* David Boren — Former
governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
and
United States Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...
from
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...
* Eli Broad — Philanthropist *
Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net ...
— Investor * Gloria Chavez — Mayor of Tijeras, New Mexico * David Chipman — Former Agent of the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preven ...
*
Michael B. Coleman Michael B. Coleman (born November 18, 1954) is an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as the 52nd mayor of Columbus, Ohio. He was the first African-American to serve as the mayor of Ohio's capital city. Coleman was a memb ...
— Former mayor of
Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...
* Carlos Giménez — Mayor of
Miami-Dade County, Florida Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...
* Roxanna Greene — Mother of Christina Taylor Greene, killed in the 2011 Tucson shooting *
Nick Hanauer Nicolas Joseph Hanauer (born September 2, 1959) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Business career Hanauer was born to a secular Jewish family in New York City and raised in Bellevue, Washington. His brother is Adrian Hanauer, ...
— Venture capitalist *
Geoffrey Henry Sir Geoffrey Arama Henry (16 November 1940 – 9 May 2012) was a Cook Island politician who was twice the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands. He was leader of the Cook Islands Party (CIP) from 1979 to 2006. Early life Henry was a native of A ...
— Mayor of Oxford, Pennsylvania * Irwin M. Jacobs—Former Chairman of
Qualcomm Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, ...
* Danny Jones — Mayor of
Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 2020 census and an estimated population of 48,018 in 2021. The Charlesto ...
* Ken Lerer — Businessman and media executive * John Mack — Former CEO of
Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...
* Chris McDonnell—Father of Grace McDonnell, a student killed at the
Sandy Hook Elementary School Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Sandy (surname), a list of people * Sandy (singer), Brazilian singer and actress Sandy Leah Lima (born 1983) * (Sandy) ...
Shooting *
Marc Morial Marc Haydel Morial (born January 3, 1958) is an American political and civic leader and the current president of the National Urban League. Morial served as Mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002 as the city's youngest Mayor, President of the ...
— President of the
National Urban League The National Urban League, formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for African Am ...
* Mike Mullen — Admiral in the U.S. Navy, Ret. * Michael Nutter — Former Mayor of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
*
Annise Parker Annise Danette Parker (born May 17, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 61st Mayor of Houston, Texas, from 2010 until 2016. She also served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and city controller fro ...
— Former Mayor of
Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
* Cleopatra Pendleton — Mother of Hadiya Pendleton, killed by gunfire * Nathaniel Pendleton — Father of Hadiya Pendleton, killed by gunfire * Gilles Rousseau — Father of Lauren Rousseau, a teacher killed at Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting * Christy Salters Martin — Former professional boxer, survivor of gun violence * Shannon Watts — Founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense


Mayors Against Illegal Guns

MAIG membership consists of "more than 1,000 current and former Mayors." MAIG membership dropped 15%, from 1,046 to 885, between the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and t ...
in December 2012 and a count reported in February 2014. NRA president James W. Porter, said "there's very little political will to take on any of these gun issues." Some mayors said the group had moved from being against illegal guns to simply being against guns. MAIG chairman John Feinblatt said the group has the same principles as before and that the membership drop was "just the natural course of events that mayors leave and join our coalition based on the electoral cycle." However, several founding mayors ended up in prison such as Kwame Kilpatrick, mayor of Detroit. Meanwhile, in Rockford, Illinois, Mayor Larry Morrissey believed "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" would be a group focused on guns that were illegally possessed by prohibited persons, but instead found the focus of MAIG was to promote legislation that made rifles and magazines illegal. In 2009, at least four mayors issued public statements in reaffirmation of their membership and praise of the coalition, in response to the NRA's letter-writing campaign. One mayor reaffirmed her membership while stating "Nothing that this organization has lobbied for has been to get rid of guns altogether or to take away people's Second Amendment rights".


Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America was founded on December 15, 2012, one day after the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and t ...
. The organization was founded for mothers to advocate for gun violence prevention as a campaign of the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund. The group was founded by Shannon Watts in
Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
,
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
and originally began as a
grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
group page titled "One Million Moms for Gun Control". By the end of 2013, Moms Demand Action had grown into an advocacy group with 130,000 members and chapters in all 50 states. The group has cited the example of
Mothers Against Drunk Driving Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is a non-profit organization in the United States, Canada and Brazil that seeks to stop drunk driving, support those affected by drunk driving, prevent underage drinking, and strive for stricter impaired drivin ...
(MADD) as a model for its establishment. Moms Demand Action has lobbied members of Congress to expand
background check A background check is a process a person or company uses to verify that an individual is who they claim to be, and this provides an opportunity to check and confirm the validity of someone's criminal record, education, employment history, and oth ...
s for individuals purchasing guns, and states that it persuaded
Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 cou ...
to ban guns from its coffee shops. Moms Demand Action endorses congressional candidates. An ad campaign launched by the group compared laws concerning assault weapons with laws that have successfully banned other things in certain areas of the United States, including
Kinder Surprise Kinder Surprise ( Italian: ''Kinder Sorpresa'' or ''Ovetto Kinder''), also known as Kinder Egg or Kinder Surprise Egg, is a milk chocolate consisting of a chocolate egg surrounding a yellow plastic capsule with a small toy inside. Manufactured by ...
chocolates, certain books, and
dodgeball Dodgeball is a team sport in which players on two teams try to throw balls and hit opponents, while avoiding being hit themselves. The objective of each team is to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with thrown balls, cat ...
. In December 2013, Moms Demand Action announced that it had merged with Mayors Against Illegal Guns to form Everytown for Gun Safety. , it says it has 4 million members. In February 2018, in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the group launched a campaign asking companies providing streaming services to remove the
NRA The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while contin ...
's online channel (
NRATV NRATV (National Rifle Association Television) was the online video channel of the National Rifle Association of America. It was established as an offshoot of NRA News in 2016 and ceased production in 2019 and went offline. History In 2004, th ...
) from their offer.


Students Demand Action For Gun Sense in America

Students Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is Everytown's student wing. After the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman-Douglas High School in Parkland Florida, many students implored Everytown for Gun Safety to found a branch dedicated to student activism. In response, Everytown founded the student organization and began accepting applications from students who wanted to found their own chapters of the group in early 2018. Two days after the March for Our Lives rally was held in Washington, D.C., Everytown announced a $1 million grant program would be made available to accelerate already-burgeoning growth. Students Demand Action chapters, in addition to pursuing goals set by student leaders and advisors, work with Everytown for Gun Safety's national office as well as local and state Moms Demand Action chapters to coordinate advocacy. In early 2019, Moms Demand Action hosted legislative advocacy days in coordination with local Students Demand Action chapters in multiple states. According to Everytown, over 200 groups have been founded as of the end of 2018.


NRA opposition

In September 2009, the
National Rifle Association The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while cont ...
(NRA) Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) stated that Mayors Against Illegal Guns is not "only concerned with 'illegal' guns" but is actually "anti-gun". The NRA encouraged members to ask their mayors to resign from MAIG. In October 2009, NRA spokeswoman Rachel Parsons stated that "the coalition's participating mayors from both large and small cities dropped from 463 to less than 400" as a result of the NRA's letter-writing campaign. Mayor Bloomberg, however, has said that while 60 mayors have left the organization since the NRA's campaign was launched, another 110 mayors have joined. Some of the NRA's criticism has included attacks on Bloomberg, MAIG's co-founder. In a cover story of their news magazine ''America's 1st Freedom'', the NRA has described Mayor Bloomberg as "a billionaire, Boston-grown evangelist for the
nanny state Nanny state is a term of British origin that conveys a view that a government or its policies are overprotective or interfering unduly with personal choice. The term likens such a government to the role that a nanny has in child rearing. An early ...
" who leads a "cabal". James O. E. Norell, contributing editor, said Bloomberg is "Beholden to nothing except his own ambitions, the mayor has established himself as a kind of national gun-control vigilante." The cover of the issue, according to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', depicts Bloomberg as a "giant octopus, looking fierce and slightly insane, with serpentine arms swirling behind him". The NRA's web site lists 73 mayors that have quit the MAIG, including 15 in Pennsylvania, alone.
Mayor Mary B. Wolf, Mary Wolf of
Williamsport, Pennsylvania Williamsport is a city in, and the county seat of, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. It recorded a population of 27,754 at the 2020 Census. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a popul ...
, said she resigned "because she thought AIGwas attempting to erode all gun ownership, not just illegal guns." John Tkazik, mayor of
Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeeps ...
, who is a member of the NRA and a former member of MAIG resigned, saying he and 50 others also resigned because "MAIG became a vehicle for Bloomberg to promote his personal gun-control agenda - Violating the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens ... It did not take long to realize that MAIG's agenda was much more than ridding felons of illegal guns; that under the guise of helping mayors facing a crime and drug epidemic, MAIG intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens. The NRA has said that MAIG has used mayor's names without permission or were otherwise misidentified.


Controversy over definition of school shootings

Following the
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting On February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Miami suburban town of Parkland, Florida, murdering 17 people and injuring 17 others. Cruz, a former student at ...
on February 14, 2018, Everytown stated that the shooting was the 18th school shooting of the year, a statistic ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' called "flat wrong". The instance Everytown counted as the first school shooting of the year regarded a 31-year-old man's suicide in the parking lot of a Michigan school that had been closed for seven months. Another instance regarded a third-grader pressing the trigger on an officer's holstered weapon, where the firearm discharged to the floor. Everytown's basis for a school shooting is defined as "any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds". ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' reported that the "real number" of school shootings since January 1, 2018, was six. By ''Time'''s standards, the number was four. The group's definition of a "school shooting" was also challenged in 2014 when Everytown claimed there had been 74 school shootings since
Sandy Hook Sandy Hook is a barrier spit in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The barrier spit, approximately in length and varying from wide, is located at the north end of the Jersey Shore. It encloses the southern ...
.


See also

* March for Our Lives


References


External links

*
Moms Demand Action website
{{Authority control Political organizations established in 2006 Political organizations established in 2013 2006 establishments in New York City 2013 establishments in New York City Coalitions Gun control advocacy groups in the United States Gun politics in the United States Michael Bloomberg