Dear MoveOn member,
Yesterday, Donald Trump buckled under pressure from the NRA—backing away from his call for stricter gun laws, made during a televised meeting with senators.1 At that meeting, he mocked other Republicans for being too scared of the NRA!
That's what cowardice looks like.
And tomorrow, tens of thousands—if not hundreds of thousands—of students all across the country, in poor communities and wealthy ones, in blue states and red states, will walk out of their classrooms at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes, one minute for each student murdered in the Parkland massacre. They'll be joined by teachers, parents, and other people of all walks of life, who are sick and tired of politicians crumbling before the NRA.
And that will show us what courage looks like.
I know which side MoveOn members are on every day—as together we make calls, tweet, sign petitions, donate, and prepare to march with hundreds of thousands of people on March 24 in Washington, D.C., and at sister marches across the county, to confront the NRA and break its stranglehold on American politics.
And that's why we want to make sure voters know which side Republican members of Congress are on—the side of Trump and the cowards or the side of American's schoolchildren, families, and communities.
MoveOn is launching billboards in key districts over the next 10 days—in time for the March for Our Lives actions around the country—to shine a spotlight on just how much money individual Republican lawmakers have taken from the NRA and hold them accountable. MoveOn members have already contributed enough to purchase 10 billboards, but as Congress continues to refuse to act, we want to go even bigger.
Will you chip in $3 now to allow us to double our ad buy to 20 billboards around the country? We want them up by March 24, which means we need to place our final order by this Friday, March 16. And we need to know how much MoveOn members can contribute. Will you help out?
Yes, I'll chip in now to fight the NRA and the epidemic of gun violence in America.
In the wake of the Parkland massacre, student activists have succeeded in forcing a conversation about gun control at the national level. But instead of listening to them, Trump and the NRA-backed GOP have called for the arming of school teachers.2 They've pushed to pass a law that would make it even easier to carry concealed weapons everywhere in the United States.3 And not a single Republican has announced that they will return or refuse money from the NRA.4
They have shown their true colors, and now they need to answer for them.
These billboards will be a visible and unmistakable reminder to the constituents in key districts across the country of just how cowardly their members of Congress have been on this issue and how out of step they are with the overwhelming majority of Americans who support legislation to curb gun violence.
Media-grabbing visuals like this, in the home districts of pro-NRA Republicans, will also force Republican members of Congress to respond and be held publicly accountable for their inaction.
Last week, in response to the growing backlash against them, the NRA released another one of their ominous, fearmongering ads, telling members of the public and elected officials who oppose them that our "time is running out."5 But we know the truth: It is the NRA and their enablers who are running out of time.
Thanks for all you do.
–Emma, Robert, Shari, Kate, and the rest of the team
Sources:
2. "Trump backs off raising age limit to buy some weapons and focuses on arming teachers," Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2018
http://act.moveon.org/go/36033?t=6&akid=201257%2E10220574%2E5qtW8b
3. "Congress Focuses on Leftover Gun Bill After Florida Shooting," Slate, February 20, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/35893?t=8&akid=201257%2E10220574%2E5qtW8b
4. "How the NRA won the obedience of the US government," Quartz, March 2, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/36035?t=10&akid=201257%2E10220574%2E5qtW8b
5. "Parkland student warns NRA spokeswoman: Your time is running out," The Hill, March 6, 2018
http://act.moveon.org/go/36036?t=12&akid=201257%2E10220574%2E5qtW8b
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.
Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to Eddie Alfaro on March 14th, 2018. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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