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Still Marching: 25 Years After the Million Mom March
We didn’t march 25-years ago because we wanted to. We marched because we had to—children were dying. They still are.
May 11, 2025
I’d never seen anything like it: a mother standing quietly in the crowd, wearing a plain white T-shirt with a large photo of a young boy flashing a wide grin, a missing front tooth, and a superhero logo across his chest. Below the picture, in simple black letters, “Darius Carter 1993-1999 Forever Six.”
She was living my worst nightmare, her beautiful six-year-old son had been shot and killed. And there she was, surrounded by thousands of other moms wearing similar shirts, refusing to let her son be forgotten.
We were just feet from the massive, bright pink-and-white Million Mom March stage on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., listening to speakers demand Congress pass common sense gun laws. It was Mother’s Day 2000—25 years ago.
Darius’ mom and I stood among 750,000 parents, grandparents, and children holding signs, wearing Million Mom March shirts, and carrying photos of loved ones lost to gun violence. Across the country, hundreds of sister marches rose up in solidarity. For many, like me, it was our first protest.
Twenty-five years ago, we marched because we believed a safer world was possible.
But the Million Mom March was more than a protest. It was a collective outcry—stitched together by grief, fueled by hope, and driven by one belief: no child should die by gun violence. With Congress failing to act, mothers across the country rose up— angry, determined, demanding change.
I never imagined I would become an activist. But on April 20, 1999, I sat frozen in front of my TV, heart pounding, as the unthinkable unfolded at Columbine High School—my alma mater. My basketball coach, Dave Sanders, was killed along with twelve students.
Something inside me broke.
I went from a stay-at-home mom with a six- and two-year-old, juggling diapers, nap schedules, and tantrums, to a gun control activist with a new sense of purpose. The following year I organized and led a delegation from Oregon to the D.C. march.
The Million Mom March was a tipping point. It sparked national conversations about gun laws and helped launch a lasting movement—it later merged with the Brady Campaign, amplifying the call for reform. The march also introduced life-saving initiatives like the ASK (Asking Saves Kids) campaign, which urges parents to ask one critical question before their child visits a friend’s home: Is there an unlocked gun in the house? It’s a simple question that can prevent tragedy. Each year, unintentional shootings injure or kill an average of 363 children in the U.S.
In the 25-years since, the movement—propelled by that day on the National Mall—has helped reshaped the fight for gun safety in America. It ignited one of the first large-scale grassroots campaigns, led to the formation of Brady Campaign chapters, and paved the way for groups like Moms Demand Action. It also spurred a wave of state-level reforms: dozens of states passed child access prevention laws, expanded background checks, and enacted red flag laws—one of our most promising tools for temporarily removing firearms from individuals who pose a danger to themselves or others.
Despite the progress, the crisis has grown worse. In 2000, about 28,000 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S.—a staggering number. Today, it’s soared to over 48,000 per year—132 lives taken every day. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and teens in America, surpassing car crashes, drownings, and cancer.
So what happened? Political courage withered and the gun lobby adapted.
They pushed through PLCCA, granting themselves sweeping immunity from lawsuits. They blocked federal funding for gun violence research. And in 2008, they won a Supreme Court ruling that redefined the Second Amendment as an individual right and struck down local gun safety laws.
The COVID-19 pandemic certainly didn’t help. It created a perfect storm: fear, isolation, distrust of government, and economic insecurity, all of which led to record-breaking gun sales. Millions of first-time gun buyers flooded the market, many without proper safety training. The gun industry profited from the fear, and communities are still paying the price.
Meanwhile, untraceable ghost guns flooded our communities, and leaders in many states chose to weaken gun laws rather than strengthen them. The gun industry seized the moment, expanding its appeal.
Twenty-five years ago, the typical gun buyer was a middle-aged man, and gun ownership was in decline. Today, the industry aggressively markets to women, young adults, and even parents—selling pink pistols to moms and tactical diaper bags to dads—casting gun ownership as a form of family empowerment. As sales rose, so did deaths.
So what now? We march again—in new ways, in new places, with the same resolve.
First, we confront the gun industry’s false promises to women and families. Marketing isn’t the problem; it’s the deadly narrative that owning a gun makes your home safer. It simply doesn’t. Research shows that a gun in the home increases the risk of homicide by 100%, suicide by 50%, and unintentional death significantly. I’ve witnessed how quickly an unsecured gun can turn a moment of fear, anger, or despair into an irreversible tragedy.
Second, we shift the national conversation from gun rights to gun responsibilities. Rights come with duties. An unsecured gun doesn’t just put your family at risk—it endangers neighbors, classmates, and entire communities. Only about 6% of guns used in crimes are stolen, yet those guns are far more likely to be used in violent crimes. And nearly 74% of school shooters under 18 got their gun from home or a relative. These aren’t just tragedies, they’re preventable. Responsible gun owners lock up their firearms, store ammunition separately, and support common-sense policies like mandatory reporting of lost or stolen guns, child access prevention laws, and required training. Supporting background checks and red flag laws isn’t anti-gun, it’s pro-responsibility.
Third, gun violence groups must work together.
In 2000, there was one widely recognized national organization: the Brady Campaign. Today there are many, but they often compete for funding, attention, and influence. It’s time to align, collaborate, and focus our collective energy against a fractured gun lobby whose primary strategy remains fear and bravado. Only by working together can we create sustained lasting change.
Finally, we must elevate and invest in the next generation of activists. Today’s young people have grown up with lockdowns and active shooter drills. They understand the stakes—viscerally. Their leadership was undeniable after the 2018 Parkland shooting, when survivors organized March for Our Lives, one of the largest single-day protests in U.S. history. Those of us who marched in 2000 must now step up and mentor, resource, and amplify this rising generation. Our kids’ lives depend on it.
Twenty-five years ago, we marched because we believed a safer world was possible. I often think of Carole Price, who bravely stood on stage that day and told us about her 13-year-old son, John—shot and killed while playing at a friend’s house. “It never occurred to me to ask about guns,” she said. “I wish I had asked the question.” Then she said something I’ll never forget: “It might be uncomfortable to ask the question. But I can tell you from personal experience, it’s a lot more uncomfortable to pick out a casket for your child.”
Even now—despite the setbacks, the rising death toll, and the political paralysis—I still believe. I believe in this next generation, in the power of parents and survivors, and in ordinary people who refuse to look away. We didn’t march 25-years ago because we wanted to. We marched because we had to—children were dying. They still are.
So we keep going. Because really, what other choice do we have?
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Ahead of Pivotal Supreme Court Gun Case, Domestic Violence Murders by Firearm Surge
"Intimate partner firearm homicide is increasing as the Supreme Court debates whether people subject to domestic violence restraining orders should be allowed to possess firearms," said the president of national gun control group Brady.
Oct 19, 2023
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear a case centered on a law that restricts access to firearms for domestic abusers, an analysis out Thursday shows how "the safety of domestic violence survivors, their families, and the American public" will be placed at risk if the court loosens those restrictions.
The group behind the report—Brady: United Against Gun Violence, whose founders fought to require background checks for firearm sales—determined that firearm homicides committed by an intimate partner went up by 22% from 2018-22, with states that have weak gun regulations seeing the most domestic abuse-related murders.
The group found that 782 people were killed by a current or former intimate partner with a gun in 2022, up from 642 in 2018. As the coronavirus pandemic was linked to an overall rise in domestic violence, a high of 856 firearm homicides by domestic abusers were recorded in 2021.
As firearms prove increasingly deadly for people facing intimate partner violence and abuse, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in U.S. v. Rahimi on November 7. The respondent in the case, Zackey Rahimi, argues that his Second Amendment rights are violated by federal laws prohibiting him from possessing a firearm due to a domestic violence restraining order filed against him.
The federal government has prohibited people subject to such restraining orders from purchasing guns since 1994, and the law was expanded to include people convicted of domestic violence two years later. In 2022, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act closed the so-called "boyfriend loophole" in the earlier law, which had only pertained to abusers who were married to, had a child with, or were the parent or guardian of the person who filed an order against them.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sided with Rahimi earlier this year—a decision that will carry "horrific ramifications, particularly for women and children," said Brady president Kris Brown, if it is allowed to stand.
"This analysis shows that intimate partner firearm homicide is increasing as the Supreme Court debates whether people subject to domestic violence restraining orders should be allowed to possess firearms," said Brown. "We know that firearms are the most common weapons used in domestic violence homicides, with female intimate partners more likely to be murdered with a gun than by all other means combined. Prohibiting domestic violence abusers from accessing firearms is common-sense, life-saving, and constitutional."
Brady noted in its analysis that even in rulings that weakened gun control regulations, such as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen and District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court has "repeatedly stated... that the Second Amendment provides 'law-abiding, responsible' citizens the right to possess firearms, but also allows for reasonable restrictions in service of public safety."
"Domestic abusers who are subject to a court ordered domestic violence restraining order—including Zackey Rahimi—are not 'law-abiding, responsible' citizens," reads the analysis. "If the Supreme Court allows the Fifth Circuit's decision to stand, the lives of countless individuals who are protected under domestic violence restraining orders will be put at risk."
The group noted that weaker state-level gun regulations are linked to deadly outcomes for people who face domestic abuse, with Texas, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee ranking as the top five states with the highest average number of intimate partner firearm homicides per year.
All five of the states have loopholes in their gun laws allowing people to buy guns online, at gun shows, or in other private transactions without a background check.
"This gap in the law creates a path for domestic abusers to avoid the Brady Background Check system and purchase firearms despite being prohibited," said Brady.
Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C. have laws requiring people subjected to domestic violence restraining orders to surrender their firearms, and on average, the group said, states that do not have such requirements see nearly twice as many firearm homicides by intimate partners.
Along with increasing the risk of homicide by 500% for the estimated 10 million people who face domestic violence in the U.S. each year, domestic abusers' access to firearms puts the greater public at risk, according to the analysis.
"In the United States," the report reads, "60% of mass shooting events between 2014-19 were either domestic violence attacks or perpetrated by those with a history of domestic violence. Several perpetrators of high-profile school shootings—including in the Parkland shooting, the Santa Fe High School shooting, and the Great Mills High School shooting—have histories of adolescent dating violence."
With the support of leading anti-domestic violence advocacy groups, Brady filed an amicus brief with the court in August in opposition of the Fifth Circuit's ruling, noting that 25 million adults in the U.S. have been threatened or injured by an intimate partner with a gun—and there is a 16% in homicides when guns are taken from the abuser by law enforcement in these cases.
"The Supreme Court must prioritize survivor safety over a dangerous abuser's access to firearms," said Brown, "and overturn this deadly ruling."
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US Supreme Court Refuses to Block Assault Weapons Ban in Illinois
"The Supreme Court once again reaffirms the rights of legislators and local officials to pass gun safety laws," said one advocate.
May 17, 2023
State and local laws banning the sale of assault weapons will stand in Illinois for the time being, following the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal on Wednesday to temporarily block the measures while pro-gun groups appeal them in lower courts.
The high court did not disclose how each justice voted or explain their reasoning for the decision, releasing only a brief statement saying that the request for an injunction was denied.
A gun store in Naperville, Illinois joined the National Association for Gun Rights in challenging a local ordinance that blocks the sale of assault weapons, defined as 26 firearms and other weapons that meet certain criteria. The law went into effect in January after being passed last August, a month after seven people were killed and nearly 50 were injured in a mass shooting in Highland Park, 35 miles away from Naperville.
The lawsuit also challenges the Protect Illinois Communities Act, which also went into force in January and bans the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines across the state.
The 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals has taken up the case and is scheduled to hear arguments on June 29.
"This is an important victory in the fight to end gun violence as the U.S. continues to deal with multiple mass shootings."
The gun store and pro-gun group cited two landmark rulings by the Supreme Court, including District of Columbia v. Heller, which held that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to possess a firearm for "lawful purposes," independent of serving in a militia; and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which held that courts must consider the gun regulations that were in effect when the Constitution was written when they decide whether a gun law should stand.
The latter ruling expanded access to firearms last year even as gun violence surpassed vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death among children in the United States.
The plaintiffs claimed that "there is no historical analogue to such a ban" as the ones passed in Illinois. State Attorney General Kwame Raoul countered in a court brief that the types of guns targeted by the laws, such as one used by the shooter in Highland Park, fall well outside the Constitution's protections for "firearms that are 'commonly used' for self-defense."
The gun control group Brady said Wednesday's development at the Supreme Court, while not the final word on the case, was "an important victory in the fight to end gun violence."
"This is a great victory for Americans and all of us working to protect our children from the gun violence epidemic facing our nation," said Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, senior adviser to advocacy group Giffords. "With this ruling the Supreme Court once again reaffirms the rights of legislators and local officials to pass gun safety laws."
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Progressives Decry US Gun Control Failures After 'Truly Sickening' Michigan School Shooting
"A 15-year-old shooter may have picked up the weapon, but Congress—through its inaction on gun violence—may as well have handed it to him."
Nov 30, 2021
Progressives on Tuesday once again blasted the lack of stricter U.S. firearm laws in the wake of a deadly school shooting--this one in Oxford, Michigan--with one left-wing congressional candidate accusing Congress of having the victims' blood on its hands for failing to pass gun control legislation.
"When do we decide that enough is enough? That kids are more important than guns?"
According to the Detroit Free Press, a 15-year-old sophomore at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit armed with a semi-automatic handgun shot three students dead and wounded at least eight other people at the school on Tuesday afternoon. The alleged shooter was subsequently arrested.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, called the shooting "every parent's worst nightmare" while speaking at a press conference.
"My heart breaks for the students, teachers, staff, and families of Oxford High School," Whitmer said in a statement. "The death of multiple students and the shooting of many others, including a teacher, is horrific."
"As Michiganders, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to protect each other from gun violence," Whitmer added. "No one should be afraid to go to school, work, a house of worship, or even their own home."
According to the Gun Violence Archive, this was the 651st U.S. mass shooting--defined as four or more casualties, not including the perpetrator--of 2021.
"This kind of tragedy is unthinkable in any other country, yet there have been an estimated 650 mass shootings in our country this year alone," Brady United Against Gun Violence said in a statement. "These tragedies demand action. They demand solutions. Shamefully, we have the solutions, but a handful of elected officials have rigged our political systems to prevent the meaningful gun violence prevention reforms that an overwhelming majority of Americans want."
"The result of that inaction is the kind of events like we've seen today," the group continued. "We cannot look away from this shooting and this community in the coming days, weeks, months, or years. Survivors and those affected by this shooting will require care long after physical wounds have disappeared. We owe it to them to take action now and stop future tragedies such as this from occurring ever again."
Michigan physician and former gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed tweeted: "When do we decide that enough is enough? That kids are more important than guns?"
Kina Collins, a longtime gun violence prevention advocate from Chicago who is campaigning for the U.S. House of Representatives, said in a statement that the Oxford High School victims' deaths are "blood on the hands of Congress."
"A 15-year-old shooter may have picked up the weapon, but Congress--through its inaction on gun violence--may as well have handed it to him," she asserted.
"This year alone, there have been 44 school shootings across the country," Collins continued. "All we got from elected officials after the 43 school shootings before this were thoughts and prayers, and I'm sure that's all we will get now. Then we'll watch as they feign shock and horror when the 45th and 46th school shootings happen next. But unless they give us real policy solutions, real implementation, real action to end these tragedies--and end gun violence in America--nothing will change."
Collins added that "the only way to prove" that the victims' lives mattered and "to honor their memories" is "by passing and enacting real legislation that seeks to end this violence now."
Campaign for a Safer Michigan--a new coalition of organizations dedicated to gun violence prevention--said that "we grieve for the victims of the Oxford High School shooting, and our sympathies go out to the Oxford community and all those that have been affected by this tragedy."
"We all deserve to live in safe communities where we have the resources that we need to be healthy and thrive," the coalition added. "Our elected officials at every level must take swift action to pass policies and provide funding to help make our communities safer from gun violence."
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In Blow to NRA, Federal Judge Dismisses Group's Bankruptcy Case
"The NRA's bankruptcy was deemed to be bad faith, much like every promise and statement the organization has made for decades," said one group working to end gun violence. "The NRA cannot escape justice."
May 11, 2021
Advocates for gun violence prevention rejoiced Tuesday when a federal judge dismissed the National Rifle Association's bankruptcy case, ruling that the powerful gun lobby declared bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid facing a New York state lawsuit that accuses the organization of fraud and seeks to disband it.
"The court finds, based on the totality of the circumstances, that the NRA's bankruptcy petition was not filed in good faith but instead was filed as an effort to gain an unfair litigation advantage in the NYAG Enforcement Action and as an effort to avoid a regulatory scheme," Judge Harlin Hale wrote in his decision, as the Washington Post reported.
In response to the ruling, New York Attorney General Letita James said in a statement that "the NRA does not get to dictate if and where it will answer for its actions." James added that "we will now refocus on and continue our case in New York court."
Hale's decision elicited praise from groups working to end gun violence nationwide.
"Today's decision is a historic win for the rule of law and a sure sign of defeat for the NRA and its corrupt leadership," Kris Brown, president of Brady, said in a statement. "The NRA's bankruptcy was deemed to be bad faith, much like every promise and statement the organization has made for decades. The NRA cannot escape justice. The court has ruled against the organization after weeks of damning testimony."
Last August, James filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the NRA "following allegations that executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts, and other questionable expenditures," the Associated Press reported.
Five months later, the NRA's top executive, Wayne LaPierre, announced that the right-wing nonprofit would file for bankruptcy and move its headquarters from New York, where it was chartered in 1871, to Texas.
The NRA's legal team contended that putting the organization into Chapter 11 bankruptcy--a move that LaPierre made "without the knowledge or assent" of other top officers and most of the 76-member board, which is "divided in its support" for him--was "a legitimate effort to avoid a political attack by James, who is a Democrat," AP noted.
The court, however, sided with James' office, which argued that NRA leaders were requesting bankruptcy protection and trying to reincorporate in Texas to "escape accountability for using the group's coffers as their piggybank," the news outlet explained.
In her statement, Brown said: "This decision was correct and it marks a new chapter in the legal proceedings against the NRA. Brady reiterates its support for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has prudently sought to hold the NRA fully accountable for its malfeasance and corruption."
"Today's victory provides even more momentum for AG James and a similar lawsuit filed by Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine," Brown added. "As we have said in the past, the time is right to dissolve today's corrupt version of the NRA, which has strayed hopelessly away from its roots focused on gun safety."
LaPierre, meanwhile, said Tuesday that the NRA will "keep fighting."
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Reporters in Annapolis Cover Shooting in Their Own Newsroom After Gunman Kills Colleagues
The attack at the newspaper's office is the United States' 195th mass shooting of 2018
Jun 28, 2018
This post may be updated.
Journalists at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland reported on a shooting that took place in their office, immediately after the attack occurred on Thursday.
Phil Davis, a crime reporter at the Baltimore Sun-owned newspaper, tweeted about the shooting while waiting to be interviewed by the police.
Police reported at around 5:00pm that five people had been killed in the shooting, and several others had been injured. A white male suspect was reportedly in custody and being questioned by police. The gunman used a shotgun in the attack.
According to CNN and MassShootingTracker.org, the attack at the newspaper's office was the 195th mass shooting recorded in the U.S. since the beginning of 2018.
In a statement, Kris Brown and Avery Gardiner of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said, "Yet another day where parents won't return home to their children, where more souls join the ledger of 96 people killed by gun violence every day in America. Yet another day where men and women who were simply trying to do their job were terrorized, hiding under desks in fear for their lives. We can't allow this to go on any longer."
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Betsy DeVos Stirs Fresh Outrage: Says School Safety Panel Won't Study Role of Guns
"Secretary DeVos is just admitting what we knew all along—that the Trump administration's pledge to keep kids safe from gun violence was not serious," said one gun control advocate
Jun 06, 2018
Gun control advocates are outraged after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos suggested that a student safety commission formed after a gunman murdered 17 people in Parkland, Florida will not examine the role of firearms in school violence.
"Frankly, Secretary DeVos is just admitting what we knew all along--that the Trump administration's pledge to keep kids safe from gun violence was not serious," Robin Lloyd of the group Giffords told VICE News. "The secretary was finally willing to admit that this administration does not have the courage to take on deep-pocketed gun manufacturers and focus on the solutions that could make a difference."
At a Senate panel on Tuesday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) had asked DeVos, "Will your commission look at the role of firearms as it relates to gun violence in our schools?" She responded, "That is not part of the commission's charge, per se."
"So you're studying gun violence but not considering the role of guns?" Leahy followed up. "We're actually studying school safety and how we can ensure our students are safe at school," DeVos said.
Asked by Leahy whether an 18-year-old high school student should be allowed to purchase an AR-15 style assault weapon--the gun of choice among mass shooters--and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, the education secretary said that is "very much a matter for debate."
The Federal Commission on School Safety "has been charged with quickly providing meaningful and actionable recommendations to keep students safe at school," according to the Education Department's website.
Although an Education Department spokeswoman later told The Huffington Post that gun violence is, in fact, "one of the 27 items to be addressed by the report" that the commission is developing, DeVos's answers to Leahy's questioning on Capitol Hill still frustrated gun control advocates.
"We wouldn't accept this lack of critical thinking and problem solving from American high school students, and we shouldn't accept it from Secretary DeVos either," remarked Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.).
Beyond the "obvious outrage" that DeVos's comments provoked, Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, highlighted concerns that commission members--DeVos, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen--lack expertise on school safety issues.
Although the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland has spurred a national student-led movement demanding stricter firearm laws, gun violence in schools has not ceased. In just the two months that followed that mid-February massacre, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, there were more than a dozen school shootings.
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10 Dead as Texas Students Become Latest Casualties in String of School Shootings
"Over and over again, American kids are marched out of schools because their lives are endangered by gunmen who have been given easy access to arsenals and bulk ammo by lobbyists and lawmakers."
May 18, 2018
Ten people were killed, 9 students and a teacher, in a shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas on Friday morning, 35 miles southeast of Houston. At least three people were being treated for injuries. Law enforcement officials said the number of casualties could rise.
Two suspects have been taken into custody in connection with the shooting.
Law enforcement officials speaking at a news briefing at 12:30pm said "possible explosive devices" had also been found on and around the campus.
The gunman reportedly entered the school and opened fire at about 7:45am. One student told the local ABC News affiliate, ABC13, that a man had entered her art classroom as the school day was beginning and started shooting at class members. Students and teachers fled their classrooms, with some students jumping out of windows to escape the attack.
Ninth grader Angelica Martinez spoke with national media outlets about her experience:
According to the Gun Violence Archive, the Santa Fe High School shooting is the United States' 100th mass shooting of 2018.
As more details of the incident became known, survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla.--who have led the nationwide #NeverAgain movement, calling for stricter gun control measures and an end to the National Rifle Association's power over legislators--were among the gun control advocates who spoke out about the latest mass shooting.
The president and other Republican leaders have been denounced by the #NeverAgain movement for insisting that equipping teachers with firearms would keep American students safe from shootings, rather than backing comprehensive gun control reforms like requiring all gun purchasers to submit to a background check and banning high-capacity ammunition magazines and military-style semi-automatic firearms.
"We are heartbroken today," said Kris Brown and Avery Gardiner, co-presidents of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, in a statement. "Once again, children are shot in their school. Once again, another mass shooting has grabbed the headlines, and meanwhile, so many other shootings go by without any attention. We've asked this time and time again--what will it take? What will it take for Congress to step up and do their jobs to protect innocent children from gun violence?"
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Oliver North, Whose 'Very Name Is Synonymous With Corruption and Disgrace,' Is NRA's Next President
"Can Oliver North even own a gun?"
May 07, 2018
Gun control advocacy groups and progressive critics expressed disbelief Monday when the National Rifle Association (NRA) announced that Oliver North--known for overseeing illegal weapons sales which led to his felony conviction in the late 1980s--will serve as the powerful lobbying group's next president.
North has recently worked as a Fox News commentator, but he is best known for his role in the Reagan-era Iran-Contra affair.
As a member of President Ronald Reagan's National Security Council, North orchestrated a weapons deal in which the U.S. sold arms to Iran despite an embargo on sales to the country. The proceeds from the sale were diverted to the U.S.-backed right-wing contra forces in Nicaragua, which were involved in cocaine trafficking and human rights abuses. North then destroyed evidence of the scheme, lied about the incident to Congress, and was convicted on three felony counts which were later reversed.
Critics and gun control advocates noted the irony of the selection of North to lead a group that claims to protect the rights of law-abiding gun owners--despite an abundance of evidence that the NRA is chiefly concerned with stripping away laws that regulate the sale and transfer of firearms.
Oliver North, who sold weapons to Iran so he could buy guns from a Syrian terrorist and then give the guns to farmer-murdering death squads, with the help of a drug-dealing Panamanian dictator. Then lied about it.
The face of law-abiding gun ownership. https://t.co/5GJgFLSjD7
-- zeddy (@Zeddary) May 7, 2018
In addition to his new role as president of the NRA, The Intercept reported last December, North has been involved in devising a plan to establish a global network of spies that would report directly to President Donald Trump and the CIA. According to Jeremy Scahill and Matthew Cole, North was "enlisted to help sell the effort to the administration. He was the 'ideological leader' brought in to lend credibility."
"Perhaps the NRA is feeling the pressure from the past few months to change their leadership--but it's downright baffling that they'd choose to install a walking lightning rod at the top of the organization," Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a statement. "Oliver North's very name is synonymous with corruption and disgrace."
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Upholding Assault Weapons Ban, Federal Judge Says Constitution Has Nothing To Say About Restricting the AR-15
"Strong gun laws save lives, and we will not be intimidated by the gun lobby in our efforts to end the sale of assault weapons and protect our communities and schools."
Apr 06, 2018
In the wake of fatal shootings in Florida and California that have fueled growing demands for stricter gun laws nationwide, a federal judge granted a victory to gun control advocates on Friday, upholding Massachusetts' ban on large-capacity magazines and assault weapons such as the AR-15, which has become the weapon of choice for U.S. mass shooters.
Dismissing a lawsuit filed by gun retailers and the Gun Owners' Action League of Massachusetts, which sought to challenge the constitutionality of the state's 20-year-old law, U.S. District Judge William Young wrote (pdf) in a 47-page ruling, "The AR-15 and its analogs, along with large capacity magazines, are simply not weapons within the original meaning of the individual constitutional right to 'bear Arms.'"
"In the absence of federal legislation, Massachusetts is free to ban these weapons and large-capacity magazines. Other states are equally free to leave them unregulated and available to their law-abiding citizens. These policy matters are simply not of constitutional moment," Young added. "Americans are not afraid of bumptious, raucous, and robust debate aboute these matters. We call it democracy."
The ruling, which could set a notable national precedent, was celebrated by gun control advocates:
"Today's decision upholding the Assault Weapons Ban vindicates the right of the people of Massachusetts to protect themselves from these weapons of war and my office's efforts to enforce the law," declared Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.
"Strong gun laws save lives, and we will not be intimidated by the gun lobby in our efforts to end the sale of assault weapons and protect our communities and schools," she said. "Families across the country should take heart in this victory."
Young's ruling, as The Boston Globe noted, "also upheld Healey's decision in 2016 to notify gun sellers and manufacturers that the state would be 'cracking down' on the illegal sale of assault weapons, including those firearms that had been altered slightly to sidestep the ban."
The decision comes amid marches, town halls, and walkouts across the country to pressure policymakers to enact tougher restrictions on firearms, including bans similar to Massachusetts' law.
On Monday, Deerfield, Illinois--a suburb of Chicago--passed an ordinance that makes it illegal to possess, manufacture, or sell assault rifles and large capacity magazines, reportedly to "increase the public's sense of safety." CBS News reported that "anyone refusing to give up their banned firearm will be fined $1,000 a day until the weapon is handed over or removed from the town's limits."
In Boulder, Colorado on Thursday night, the city council unanimously passed a first reading of a similar ordinance. City officials will make a final decision on the measure at a future meeting.
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