Hey John, wanted to send a quick note: We’re in danger of not hitting our $75,000 goal.

This is so much bigger than just a fundraising goal. This is about what we can achieve in 2021 together. 🥺  Every dollar raised goes toward helping us train volunteers, pay organizers and our staff, pressure those in power to pass gun safety legislation, fund our chapters, make communities safer, and more.

We 👏 Can 👏 Do 👏 This

If you’re able, please consider donating to help us reach our $75,000 goal before midnight tonight.

And, if you have the time, scroll down to check out this super helpful rundown from my new coworker, Max. It’s worth the read, I promise!!!

Stay safe tonight, friends. See you in 2021!! ✨💕

Matthew Hogenmiller
Digital Manager 
March For Our Lives

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FWD: The State of Gun Violence in America
FROM: Max Markham, March For Our Lives
SENT: Dec. 30, 2020 at 10:03 AM EST
TO: [email protected]

Hey John,

I’m Max, the new Policy Director at March For Our Lives. Though I'm a student myself (finishing up law school), I'm joining MFOL at a time with high hopes for the future. The movement to end gun violence has an amazing opportunity before us, and your involvement with our work is urgently needed. 

While millions of people in this country are worried about paying their bills, the NRA and gun companies are still raking it in. Due to fears over the election, the pandemic, and more, gun sales surged this year, with $400 million in sales from just ONE gun manufacturer in just the first nine months of the year. And while the NRA is hobbled, they are still powerful. They spent a whopping $38.5 million in legal costs last year (remember that letter we filed to NY Attorney General Tish James, who is investigating them for using member funds for personal enrichment... which just might end up dissolving the entire NRA 👀). And then there’s the $23 million the NRA spent trying to influence the outcome of the 2020 election. So, despite likely misusing membership dues, the NRA is still a fundraising machine, and they’re successful. We’ve got to have people on our side willing to fight just as hard for peace. If Donald Trump, Jr. shows up next year to run the NRA, we’ll need to be ready.

Can you help us reach our $75,000 end-of-year goal to help us train volunteers, pay organizers, and pressure those in power next year?

This pandemic laid bare so many of the systemic issues in this country, and gun violence, with its racially disparate impact, is no exception. While the news was focused elsewhere for much of this year, gun violence didn’t pause. People are dying, especially in Black and brown communities like mine. So before we get to the opportunities before us, here’s a glimpse at the NRA's impact and the alarming state of gun violence in this country:

• More than 41,500 Americans have died by gun violence this year -- the highest number EVER.
• Police have shot and killed almost 1,000 people this year, and Black Americans are killed at more than twice the rate of white Americans.  
• At least 1,271 children have been killed by guns in 2020.
• Suicide rates among young people have surged over the past decade, and may further increase next year, in part because of the easy acess to firearms and the surge in gun sales this year. 90 percent of suicide attempts using a firearm result in death.
• Three women die every day at the hand of their abusers. Over half of intimate partner homicides are committed with a firearm -- and the pandemic has only exacerbated dangerous living situations.
• Federal pro-gun candidates won ten (10!) races, including a few where gun violence prevention groups outspent gun rights groups.

These aren’t just statistics -- these are real people that are affected by the gun violence epidemic in this country. The NRA is powerful -- but so are we. 2021 is our chance to SAVE LIVES. Can you donate $10 to help us reach our goal by tomorrow at midnight?

Young folks put the Biden-Harris administration in office. So we fully expect the new administration to start addressing the problems that young people will inherit. New leadership in the White House and Congress has given us new hope -- we have a real opportunity for federal action, but only if we continue to push. In the year to come, we want to see more funding for federal gun violence prevention research and community-based solutions centered on anti-violence and health-based approaches. The gun lobby has gone unchecked for TOO long, and we want to see real accountability for unregulated bad actors. It’s our time to push legislation forward that standardizes licensing and limits weapons of war. It’s up to us to make our communities safer -- and that’s exactly what we plan to do. 

We know that it can seem like change is far away, but every day we’re getting closer. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support in this fight. 

In solidarity,
Max Markham 
Policy Director 
March For Our Lives