NEW YORK — Everytown for Gun Safety, and Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, Everytown’s grassroots networks, released the following statements on the one-year mark since George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis Police Officer, Derek Chauvin.
“George Floyd’s murder was a tragic reminder of one of the fundamental facts about America’s gun violence crisis: Black people in America have been disproportionately impacted by violence at the hands of law enforcement, and that violence is often perpetrated with a gun,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Today, Everytown reaffirms our commitment to honoring the memory of George Floyd, and all the victims of police brutality, by fighting for laws to hold law enforcement accountable when they violate the public trust.”
“In the year since George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, our country has seen a rapidly growing and long overdue reckoning with the need for accountability for police violence,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “While we’ve made progress in this effort, that call to action remains and the work we still have ahead of us is great. Because until we end police violence and gun violence that disproportionately kills Black people and people of color, our work will not be complete.”
“Today, we take a moment to reflect on the work that has been done over the past year to demand justice for George Floyd and call for an end to police violence against Black people and people of color in our country. We also must acknowledge just how much more work we have to do — as a country, within the gun violence prevention movement, and within our organization — to advance the cause of police accountability and to ensure ‘Black Lives Matter’ is more than a slogan, but remains a commitment and call to action,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, Head of Movement Building at Everytown for Gun Safety.
More information about police violence is available here.