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Statement

Moms Group on the Parkland School Shooting and Emerging Student Activism Around Gun Safety Reforms

February 19, 2018
Gun Control

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO and executive director of MomsRising, an online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the Parkland school shooting and the emerging student movement for gun safety reforms
“The Parkland School Shooting last week that claimed the lives of 17 students and educators is a national tragedy. Our country’s moms once again mourn that even more people – this time, more children – have been added to the ranks of those victimized by our country’s gun violence epidemic with this horrifying act of domestic terrorism that has also assaulted the sanctity of school safety.
 
“This is the eighteenth school shooting this year. We are terrified for our children’s safety in school and we demand action. 150,000 students, attending at least 170 primary or secondary schools, have experienced a shooting on campus since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. The status quo – where there is a mass shooting in a school once a week – is simply unacceptable.
 
“And while the Parkland School Shooting is a national tragedy, we are encouraged and strengthened by the students of Stoneman who with courage and compassion have started a student movement for gun safety reforms. We stand with them. It is long past time to get military-style assault weapons with high-capacity magazines out of the hands of civilians. It is long past time we fight the epidemic of American gun violence with common sense gun policy reform, including mandatory universal background checks and investment in community-based anti-violence programs. We also call on our elected leaders to remove themselves from the influence of the gun lobby by pledging to refuse their campaign contributions.
 
“The time for thoughts and prayers is over. It’s time to save lives – and to do that Congress must act. The moms of America will no longer forgive their failure to keep our kids safe.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.