INDIANAPOLIS, IN. — Today, over 130 Indiana Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots network, held their advocacy day for the 2024 legislation session to call for legislative action on gun safety during the session. Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers gathered at the Indiana State Capitol to not only honor and stand with victims of gun violence, but to continue to call on Indiana lawmakers to advance a common-sense gun safety agenda that will save lives. This includes rejecting legislation that would limit the ability of localities to bring suit against bad actors in the gun industry (HB 1235). This bill would allow only the state of Indiana to bring suits on behalf of local governments for irresponsible actions of industry members – limiting local authority. The measure now moves to the Senate.
“The alignment between extremist Indiana lawmakers and the gun industry is dangerous and harmful to our safety and communities,” said Salsabil Qaddoura, a volunteer with Students Demand Action in Indiana. “Guns are the number one killer of my generation in Indiana and across the country. We will not back down in our fight to hold our lawmakers accountable in prioritizing our safety over the gun lobby’s ‘guns everywhere’ agenda.”
“We want it to be known that we will not let up in our battle against the epidemic of gun violence, which is why we are today here at the statehouse,” said Heather Hilbert, a volunteer with the Indiana chapter of Moms Demand Action “As gun violence continues to be the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in this country we should be working to hold bad actors in the gun industry accountable for their role in this crisis – not letting them off the hook. Our movement will not stand idle as this crisis continues to tear communities apart and we look forward to working with lawmakers to defeat this ludicrous measure.”
Indiana has some of the weakest gun laws in the country – ranking 30th in the country for gun law strength in Everytown’s 2024 Gun Law Rankings. Everytown’s interactive gun law platform – which shows the direct correlation between the strength of a state’s gun laws – is available here.
In an average year, 1,086 people die and 1,512 are wounded by guns in Indiana. Guns are the leading cause of death among children and teens in Indiana – an average of 124 children and teens die by guns every year. More information about gun violence in Indiana is available here.
