PFAW Member,
Within one week of a tragic mass shooting in Gilroy, CA, this past weekend saw back-to-back gun massacres in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH.
We’re all still reeling and trying to grapple with the weight of these tragedies, and of the toll – paid in blood and terror – that racist hatemongering and inaction on gun reform are taking on our country. Americans are fed up, frustrated, and scared.
Here are two things you can do now:
1) Petition Mitch McConnell and the Senate to take up popular, common-sense gun reform measures NOW (click to sign).
Mitch McConnell has (gleefully) celebrated his role in turning the Senate into a legislative graveyard for bills passed by the Democratic-majority House. We simply can’t abide such inaction on something as critical as measures – some already passed by the House – aimed at reducing gun violence and saving American lives.
The House has passed two bipartisan background check bills this session that are awaiting action by the Senate. Background checks are clearly not the only solution, but they are a necessary and common-sense step in containing the violence that we are seeing.
Banning military-style assault weapons, along with the high-capacity magazines that make these guns all the more deadly, is another common-sense step that should be taken – and taken quickly. Assault rifles were reportedly used in all three of last week’s mass shootings, with the destructive power of these weapons on full display. The sheer numbers of people killed or injured in these tragedies speak for themselves but the amount of time in which the shooters were able to inflict such devastation is worthy of note. The Gilroy shooter fired on his victims for less than one minute. In Dayton, the shooter was neutralized by police within 30 seconds of opening fire and within that miniscule amount of time was able to murder 9 people and injure at least 27 others. Think about that … how can there be ANY justification for a weapon that destructive being legally available for purchase in any state?
2) Keep having the conversation about racist hate and white supremacist violence.
We saw white supremacist domestic terrorism on display in El Paso this weekend that left 22 dead – and we need to call it out for what it is.
According to the FBI, white supremacist hate is now the greatest terrorist threat facing our country. But instead of creating a unified front in rejecting and shaming racist hate, and dispelling conspiracy theories about “white genocide” and a “great replacement,” too many politicians are fanning the flames of hate with dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants and stoking fear about “invasions” – especially the president of the United States. And his enablers know exactly what they are doing when they so conspicuously refuse to call out hate groups and racist movements and, in contrast, choose to validate them with a wink and a nod.
The Washington Post’s Phillip Rucker was one of many to call attention to a recent example from President Trump, just this May at a rally in Florida:
“How do you stop these people [referring to immigrants]? You can’t,” Trump lamented at a May rally in Panama City Beach, Fla. Someone in the crowd yelled back one idea: “Shoot them.” The audience of thousands cheered and Trump smiled. Shrugging off the suggestion, he quipped, “Only in the Panhandle can you get away with that statement.”
This, of course, is from the same president who referred to protesters at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA as “fine people.”
And then there was the tweet from Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) back in June in which he shared an article – without any other context – about demographic changes in his state, with the comment, “Texas gained almost nine Hispanic residents for every additional white resident last year.”
Who was that tweet meant for? What was the purpose? Is Sen. Cornyn – a member of both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism – completely unaware that there is an entire movement of radical white nationalists that is growing and festering in this country, using alternative social media sites like 8chan to organize, and exploiting every piece of inflammatory rhetoric and irresponsibly presented statistics that might bolster their positions, grow their ranks and radicalize more people towards potential violence?
It’s time to demand that political leaders of all stripes stand unified against hate, and that they stop playing footsie with white nationalists and known hate groups, because the consequence of not speaking out against hate is that hate continues to grow and spread … and the results of that are deadly.
We know that Trump is culpable in the spread of hate, and that many of his political allies are guilty when it comes to the use of dangerous rhetoric – or, nearly as harmful, dangerous silence – but this is not about partisan finger pointing. It’s about speaking out for the America we want to be … and about rejecting racism and hate as antithetical to the American Way for which we choose to fight.
So keep having the conversation and keep standing up for your values. Because people of conscience staying silent is how the hatemongers win.
Common-sense gun violence prevention and standing up to racism are both issues for which there should be bipartisan support. But the ball is in Trump and the GOP’s court.
We call on Republicans to remove partisanship from this conversation by examining their consciences and choosing to stand up against racist fearmongering and choosing to stand up to the NRA.
THANK YOU for all of your support and for everything you do.
-- The PFAW Team
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