John,

Well, the “unthinkable” has happened … AGAIN.

We won’t rehash the details, they’re on every news channel. Turn your TV on if you haven’t heard about what happened in Texas today. But what’s on our minds is the same thing that must be on every decent person’s mind tonight: What on Earth is WRONG with us as a nation? Why haven’t we stopped this from happening – over and over again?

Eighteen little children are dead, just a few days before what should have been their summer vacation. They were killed by a boy who turned 18 less than a week ago, carrying a weapon he never should have been able to access. And as horrible as it is, it’s not a new story … it’s Sandy Hook, the unwanted sequel.

We don’t know all the background yet. We know the killer shot his grandma first.  We know he died in the attack. It remains to be seen whether this was another case of a young man being radicalized by internet provocateurs, simply a sick kid with violent tendencies lashing out, or something else.

But here’s the thing: It doesn’t matter why he did it. It matters what we do next.

Tonight, the NRA will enjoy a massive spike in donations. Every time there’s a gun massacre at a school, donations to the NRA double, along with gun and ammunition sales.

The NRA then turns around and gives that money to Republican politicians who will fight tooth and nail to block any and all gun safety reform legislation, regardless of whether it costs more children’s lives – which it certainly will.

We debated long and hard about whether to say what we’re about to say next … but this Tweet from Don Winslow convinced us to say it, because he’s absolutely right:

Here’s the thing … Republicans don’t care whether it’s unseemly or unethical to fundraise off a bunch of dead kids. As we write this letter, 2^nd Amendment extremists are mobilizing their troops, putting the same game plan into action that they do each and every time this happens:

1. Scare the crap out of their followers by claiming this tragedy is the one that will FINALLY push the government to come and take away their guns (extra paranoia points if they call it a “false flag operation” and imply the victims were actually “crisis actors”).
2. Raise a ton of money.
3. Flood their handpicked Republican candidates with cash and get them elected.
4. Make sure nothing changes until the next mass shooting.
5. Repeat … over and over again.

That’s why we’re just going to say it: The only way to make sure this doesn’t happen again is to fight fire with fire – we need to be raising money tonight, and every other night, to turn around and donate to candidates who will DO SOMETHING to end gun violence.

Because the other side is sure as hell raising money to make sure it can continue.

Look, we get it.  As Americans, we’re so messed up by this never-ending trauma that we’ve become almost numb to it. We no longer experience the 5 stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) like normal human beings.

We skip right over denial because the violence doesn’t shock us any more, speed through anger with a rage tweet, skip bargaining because we’ve been conditioned to think nothing can change, and settle at depression and acceptance because we’ve all but given up.

So, we’re writing tonight to beg you: LET’S NOT GIVE UP.

You know, No Dem Left Behind sometimes gets criticized for investing time, money, and effort in so-called “unwinnable” races in red states and districts. Well, we have two things to say to that:

• “Unwinnable” is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Just by showing up, our candidates shape the narrative and move the needle further toward progress, regardless of the election outcome.

Now, of course we want our candidates to win, and we fully believe they can. But the point is, in order to win, you’ve got to show up! You’ve got to play … and you’ve got to give it your all.

So tonight, let’s show up. Let’s look the gun lobby in the eyes and say “Enough is enough. This time, we’re going to beat you at your own game.” Then, let’s raise enough money to defeat them this November.

In shared sorrow and anger,

--The No Dem Left Behind team