The petition to Congress reads:
“The NRA is a dangerous extremist group. Its ‘guns everywhere’ agenda threatens public safety and makes it almost impossible to pass gun control legislation at the federal or state levels. No elected official should take its money.”
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The NRA is to blame for our epidemic of gun violence, but so are the politicians who do its bidding.
In the last 20 years, the NRA has donated more than $4.1 million to current members of Congress.1 It spent at least $55 million in the 2016 election cycle to advance not only its “guns everywhere” agenda, but right-wing Republican extremism more broadly.2 This financial power has kept most federal- or state-level bills about gun control from even getting a vote.
But since the Parkland shooting, the NRA has been under relentless scrutiny. Corporate partners have been abandoning the NRA in droves.3 And people all over the country have been publicizing and criticizing the amount of money their representatives have taken from the NRA. We need to keep that pressure on and demand that Congress break free from the NRA.
After every mass shooting, the NRA’s lackeys in Congress offer their thoughts and prayers for the victims and survivors, but then refuse to bring real gun control legislation to a vote. It’s happening again in the wake of the Parkland shooting. House Majority Leader Paul Ryan has indicated he has no plans to push for gun control in the House.4 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell just put aside gun control legislation to make room to pass giveaways to big banks.5
These politicians often try to excuse their cowardice by saying there’s no evidence that gun control works. But a recent major study by RAND provides clear evidence that they are wrong and “reveals what a depraved dereliction of responsibility doing nothing yet again will really amount to.”6
Congress will continue to be derelict in its responsibilities if our representatives continue to be in the pocket of the NRA. Our friends at NoNRAMoney.org are working hard to get elected officials and candidates to pledge not to take the NRA’s money. But the NRA’s lackeys will not give up that money without a fight. At a CNN town hall after Parkland, survivor Cameron Kasky asked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio if he would stop taking NRA money. Rubio, to jeers from the audience, refused to do so.7 We need to amplify Kasky’s pressure across the country and demand that every elected official refuse to take the NRA’s blood money. Can you add your name today? Click the link below to sign the petition:
- Heidi Hess, CREDO Action
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References:
#stopNRA
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Monday, March 5, 2018
Tell Congress: Stop taking the NRA’s money
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