Preventing Gun Violence
“If we turn our heartbreak and our anger into action, I know we can take the power from the NRA and the lawmakers in their pockets and return it to the people.” – Elizabeth Warren
Download the Preventing Gun Violence one-pager.
WHAT THIS PLAN IS ABOUT
On average every day 100 people are killed in the U.S. by a gun—in shootings that occur in our homes, on our streets, at our playgrounds.
We can’t wait any longer. That’s why Elizabeth’s plan for gun violence prevention includes:
- Executive action to rein in an out-of-control gun industry;
- Breaking the NRA’s stranglehold of Congress by passing sweeping anti-corruption legislation and eliminating the filibuster; and
- Sending Congress comprehensive gun violence legislation to sign into law within the first 100 days.
Specifically, Elizabeth will:
- Take immediate executive action to expand background checks, bringing the vast majority of private sales under the existing background check umbrella;
- Work with Congress to create a federal licensing system – because just like a license is required to drive a car, it should be required to purchase a firearm or ammunition;
- Keep military-style assault weapons off our streets by passing a new federal assault weapons ban, banning high-capacity ammunition magazines, and prohibiting accessories that make weapons more deadly;
- Secure our schools by improving the Gun-Free School Zones Act to include college and university campuses;
- Protect survivors of domestic abuse by closing the “boyfriend loophole” so that any intimate partner with a domestic violence conviction involving any romantic partner is not able to purchase a gun;
- Holding gun manufacturers liable for the harm they cause; and
- Prohibiting anyone convicted of a hate crime from owning a gun. Instead of a president who winks and nods as white nationalism gets stronger in this country, we need a president who will use all the tools available to prevent it.
Elizabeth has set a goal is to reduce gun violence deaths by at least 80% — we’ll begin by implementing solutions we believe will work, and constantly revisit and update those solutions based on new public health research.
WHY IT’S NEEDED
Columbine.
Sandy Hook.
Charleston.
Pulse.
Las Vegas.
Parkland.
Pittsburgh.
El Paso.
Dayton.
These are just a few of the names and places etched into the American consciousness, synonymous with senseless loss and enduring grief.
There is no shortage of horrifying statistics about our gun violence epidemic.
- Our firearm homicide rate is 25 times higher than other comparable countries.
- Our firearm suicide rate is nearly 10 times higher.
- Women in the U.S. are 21 times more likely to be shot to death than women in other high-income countries, most killed by an intimate partner.
- 21 children and teenagers are shot every day.
We don’t need any more reasons. The next president has a moral obligation to use every tool she has to address the gun crisis.
Want more? Read Elizabeth’s full plan here.
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