NEW YORK — Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund is launching $200,000 in digital ads against U.S. Senators in key battleground states who have failed to advance meaningful federal gun safety legislation, including: Senators Martha McSally (R-AZ); Cory Gardner (R-CO); Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rick Scott (R-FL), David Perdue (R-GA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Mitt Romney (R-UT). The digital spend represents the first investment by Everytown since the White House and GOP Senate leaders suggested that action on gun reform would not be possible, blaming impeachment for the inability to do anything to address the gun violence crisis in America. The ads will include Facebook and Google ads, plus homepage takeovers in top-tier state news outlets, and run through the end of the week.
VIEW THE ADS HERE.
“Senators across the country have deliberately failed in their most basic responsibility to keep their constituents safe, so it’s time to elect new leadership who will stand with the American people over the gun lobby,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Everytown is investing in these swing states so that voters understand that inaction isn’t inevitable, and that there is something they can do. Any elected official who has not learned the lesson of Virginia – that gun safety is a winning political issue – is in for a rude awakening come next November.”
The ads focus on the number of people who die from guns in each state every year, calling out each Senator by name and asking readers to send a message. The ads will click through to a page where constituents can directly message their Senators to voice their disapproval.
Sample ad text for Senator Thom Tillis reads:
1,311 North Carolina gun deaths per year
Where is Senator Tillis?
Just last week, Republican Senator Joni Ernst said that Senate Repubicans would not advance the bipartisan House-passed Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, which contained life-saving provisions to disarm domestic abusers by closing the “boyfriend loophole.” Just over the past few days, there have been domestic violence-related shootings across the country, including in Duncan, Oklahoma,San Diego and Fresno, California.