2020 brought the deadliest pandemic in a century; revealed the historic weakness of the outgoing presidential administration; and brought millions to the streets to protest racial injustice. But through it all, the gun safety movement made extraordinary progress.
The most visible proof of the success of Everytown for Gun Safety and its grassroots arms, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, is the victory of the strongest gun safety ticket in history, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who benefited from Everytown’s massive grassroots and financial support. But the presidential race was just one chapter of Everytown, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action’s 2020 story.
As the year comes to a close, take a moment to learn about what happened in gun safety in 2020 and what’s ahead by reading Everytown’s 2020 Year in Review, including:
- Electing gun sense candidates to the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and in down-ballot races from statehouse to school boards, along with record numbers of Moms Demand Action volunteers elected to public office;
- The extraordinary power of grassroots volunteers to make progress while seamlessly transitioning to digital advocacy;
- A floundering NRA, reckoning with plummeting revenue and rising legal bills — in the hundreds of millions of dollars;
- Leaders in the U.S. House who passed historic gun safety legislation, even as the Senate and White House refused to take action;
- Changing the culture to prevent gun violence, from Wearing Orange to elevating storylines about gun violence;
- Exposing the dangers of this year’s surge in gun sales during the pandemic;
- States continuing to pass gun safety laws while defeating NRA priority legislation across the country;
- Bolstering efforts to support local City Gun Violence intervention programs;
- Conducting research to inform solutions to gun violence; and
- Taking the fight for gun safety to the courts.
Looking ahead to 2021, the future of gun safety has never been brighter and it’s clear this year will be a critical one for the gun safety movement. Don’t hesitate to reach out for more.