Everytown Also Releases 2015 Gun Politics ‘Year in Review’, Forecasts How the Gun Safety Movement Will Continue to Advance Gun Safety in 2016
Video and Memo Come Just Ahead of Third Anniversary of Sandy Hook Shooting and Nearly One Week After San Bernardino; This Weekend, Nearly 100 Cities Will Host “Orange Walks” to Honor Victims of Gun Violence; #EndGunViolence
NEW YORK CITY —Everytown for Gun Safety today released a new video – “We Can End Gun Violence” – featuring a broad range of Americans including survivors of gun violence, moms, President Obama and cultural icons including Julianne Moore, Michael J. Fox, Amy Schumer, Spike Lee, Jennifer Aniston and Sofia Vergara, among others. The video, which can be found here, comes just days ahead of the three-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting and nearly a week after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.
Americans are invited to submit their own “We Can” or “End Gun Violence” video message on a new online portal at www.WeCanEndGunViolence.org. New submissions will be added to the end of the video to show how Americans are making personal commitments to doing whatever it takes to end gun violence in America.
“The fact that Americans are 20 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than people in any other developed country is unacceptable,” said Colin Goddard, a survivor of the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech and Senior Policy Advocate for Everytown for Gun Safety. “But, together, Americans are standing up and fighting back, and this new video sends a clear message that we will rally together to help end gun violence. The gun safety movement has grown tremendously over the past few years and what’s more: we’re winning. We’re defeating the gun lobby in statehouses across the country and making it clear that we won’t sit idly by while 88 Americans are killed by gun violence every day and hundreds more are injured.”
Everytown for Gun Safety also released its 2015 gun politics ‘Year in Review’ today, available here, which details the gun safety movement’s success in passing safer gun laws and defeating at least 64 gun lobby priority bills in states across the country. The memo also reviews how gun safety is becoming an issue that political candidates are embracing, how Everytown is making the case for the President to take executive action on guns, how we are building a movement and changing the culture of gun safety and what we’re focused on for 2016.
This weekend, nearly 100 cities across the country will host “Orange Walks” to #EndGunViolence, to mark three years since the Sandy Hook tragedy and to honor all survivors and victims of gun violence. In each city, supporters of Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and members of the Everytown Survivor Network will walk together as a reminder that the best way to honor gun violence victims is to keep moving forward, show the momentum behind our movement that continues to build and to never give up. Orange, the color that hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves, has been embraced by the gun violence prevention movement as a symbol of a shared commitment to do everything we can to reduce gun violence in our country.
“Moms and Americans across the country are fed up and we are channeling our anger into action. Thoughts and prayers alone from lawmakers aren’t enough: we demand stronger gun laws to protect our children, families and communities,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a part of Everytown for Gun Safety. “This weekend, we’re honoring the victims and survivors of gun violence, and we’re showing our continued commitment to changing America’s culture of gun violence. In 2016, we will use our voices and votes to make gun safety a make-or-break issue for political candidates.”
The “We Can End Gun Violence” video technology was developed by Peepsqueeze, Inc., the company that created the collaborative video app that eases the making of montage videos by groups of friends, family, and citizens.