John — as of August 1st, more than 25,000 Americans have died this year as a result of gun violence.

More than a thousand of the victims were children or teens.

We’ve suffered more than 420 mass shootings including at least 20 K-12 school shootings.

It’s unacceptable.

I’ve taken executive action to help curb gun violence in our state. I issued an order putting 280,000 criminal convictions in the background check database, helped make our schools safer and started a safe storage campaign. I’ve long called for common sense legislation to reduce gun violence, John, but too often radical Republican politicians choose their allegiance to the gun lobby over protecting the lives of those they serve.

The rest of us need to stand together and demand change. Please, add your name next to mine calling on the GOP to set partisanship aside and join with Democrats to take action on gun violence >>>

Gun violence prevention is a deeply personal issue to North Carolinians, where our children are more at risk of death by gun violence than the national average and an average of five North Carolinians a day die of gun injury.

It’s in our power to change that.

At the national level, we need to institute a new ban on assault weapons. Here in NC, we can pass reasonable reforms like red flag laws and stronger background checks — proposals that Democrats in Raleigh continue to introduce despite Republican opposition.

Gun violence is a public health crisis, and it’s time for all elected officials to treat it like one.

I’ll continue to do everything in my power to protect North Carolinians from gun violence, but we can’t get new laws passed when Republican legislators refuse to come to the table. Sign on now to tell the GOP to join us and take action to prevent gun violence >>>

Thank you,

Roy Cooper