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2020 Gun Sense victories, Tisa Whack, Georgia Senate Runoffs, Gun Safety Time...

  • Writer: Don Lichterman
    Don Lichterman
  • Dec 1, 2020
  • 4 min read

Thanks to you and the support of volunteers across the country, we elected the strongest gun safety ticket ever to the White House. Our volunteers made over 1.4 million calls and sent more than 2.2 million peer-to-peer text messages to voters. On top of that, our Students Demand Action volunteers helped over 100,000 young Americans register to vote.



We've seen what we're capable of: we kicked the NRA's favorite president out of office. And even though we've still got a lot of work ahead of us, we know that with your support, we can continue to win gun sense victories across the country.


Thank you again for being a part of this movement, and we hope you take the time to celebrate these major victories.

Why I'm with Moms Demand Action this Giving Tuesday, Tisa Whack, South Carolina Deputy Chapter Lead, Moms Demand Action

My son Tyrell had such a bright future ahead of him. Tyrell was smart, athletic, very handsome, humorous, and had the most amazing smile. He was a husband, married to his high school sweetheart, and a father to their two year old son. But life changed forever on the evening of November 30, 2015 when a detective and a coroner showed up at our house. They told us that there was a shooting and tragically, Tyrell did not survive. He was 23.

I remember telling myself how this could not be happening. How could life be so cruel? For many years, it felt like reality was impossible to face.


But eventually, I chose to speak out. I chose to be a voice for Tyrell and the many others whose lives were cut short by gun violence. I joined my local Moms Demand Action Chapter where I first volunteered as the Community Outreach Lead and I now serve as the South Carolina Deputy Chapter Lead.



I decided to speak out as Tyrell's Mom because his voice was taken. I decided to join Moms Demand Action because we cannot continue to sit by as the number of people killed or wounded by senseless gun violence grows. We cannot allow this to be accepted as our new normal.


Georgia Senate Runoffs

The Georgia Senate races were too close to call and are headed for a runoff election on January 5th, which will determine who controls the Senate.


Mitch McConnell and his majority started spending millions of dollars on negative ads to hold his majority and protect the NRA’s majority in the Senate.


We’re asking you to help us elect Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Georgia so we can flip the Senate to a gun safety majority and finally pass universal background checks.


You can see how important this is and how high the stakes are, which is why we have to ask:


These races are so close, but we have a real chance at flipping the Senate to a gun safety majority. These two seats will determine everything for us which is why every dollar makes a difference.

Take Action, Responsibility & Wildlife...
"Corporations Are People My Friend."
Our companies are known for creating products that enhance people's lives.  Through Sunset Corporation of America and its companies, we’re equally dedicated to improving lives.  Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.

The Sustainable Action Network (SAN), A Don Lichterman non-profit organization dedicated to building a global community raising awareness of corruption, injustice and the need for action across a full range of issues impacting people and animal/wildlife welfare around the world, such as conservation, climate change, campaign law, lobbying, government action and rescue work. SAN’s vision is to create safer world, free from political, environmental, and social oppression, where all the inhabitants of Earth can live in harmony within their own natural environments. Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.

The Sustainable Action Network (SAN), A Don Lichterman non-profit organization dedicated to building a global community raising awareness of corruption, injustice and the need for action across a full range of issues impacting people and animal/wildlife welfare around the world, such as conservation, climate change, campaign law, lobbying, government action and rescue work. SAN’s vision is to create safer world, free from political, environmental, and social oppression, where all the inhabitants of Earth can live in harmony within their own natural environments. Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
ANIMAL RESCUES WELFARE, CRIMES & ABUSE
PROTECT OUR WILDLIFE



Gun Sense Candidates & "F" rated candidates, Samantha Michaels, Gun Safety & the NRA loves this...

  • Writer: Don Lichterman
    Don Lichterman
  • Sep 29, 2020
  • 7 min read

If you ever wondered how low President Trump and Majority Leader McConnell would stoop to hold on to power, look no further than their attempt to ram through a Supreme Court appointment. The NRA would love nothing more than to see their top allies appoint a justice with extreme views on guns.

That's why we're fighting to elect candidates that have received an "F" rating from the NRA. Only the fiercest Gun Sense Champions get an "F" rating from the NRA. It means they're ready to fight the extremist gun lobby every step of the way. And that's just what we need at this critical time.



If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately by clicking one of the dollar amounts:


President Trump vowed he'd never let the NRA down. And if Trump gets to make yet another Supreme Court selection, he'll choose someone likely to uphold the NRA's extreme "guns everywhere" agenda.


An urgent conversation about police brutality and gun-violence prevention - Samantha Michaels, Criminal Justice Reporter at Mother Jones

I’m Samantha Michaels, a criminal justice reporter at Mother Jones, and I'm hosting a free online event on Thursday that I hope you'll be able to join. While some of our nation's leaders want us to believe there's chaos in the streets, it's critical that we understand what's actually happening, and I'll be talking with two incredible leaders: the McBride brothers. Starting in Oakland, they helped launch a nationally acclaimed strategy that cut shootings in half in the city, not by ramping up arrests, but by investing in social services and connecting young men in gangs with life coaches who grew up in similar neighborhoods. Police departments in cities around the country—from Portland to Chicago to New York—have sent officials to California to observe the model. Join us on Thursday, September 24, at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET for a conversation with brothers Pastor Michael McBride and Reverend Ben McBride, two national leaders in the movement to reduce gun violence with community-centered and data-driven public health approaches. I hope you'll join us, and if you can—or even if you can't—you can get to know a bit more about the McBrides in my recent feature story from our magazine, where, amid calls to defund police, I took a deep dive into how Oakland residents convinced the city to rethink its approach to gun violence. In California and other states, a big obstacle to reform has often been police unions, and you can learn more about why that is in my article "The Infuriating History of Why Police Unions Have So Much Power." (And if you want to feel inspired, check out a recent interview I did with Dayvin Hallmon, a man who started an all-Black and Latinx orchestra in Milwaukee out of his grief over the loss of Black lives.) I know that the national conversation about police brutality, public safety, and racial justice is an incredibly important issue to Mother Jones readers—we all want to understand what solutions are possible. And as shootings in many cities spike during the pandemic, I couldn’t think of a better time to talk with Pastor Mike and Rev. Ben about their revolutionary work. We’ll discuss how cities can re-envision their public safety systems, what a world without police might look like, and why it’s possible to drastically reduce violent crime without relying on armed officers in the streets. Register here to join the conversation. You won’t want to miss it. Thank you for reading, and for everything you do to make Mother Jones what it is. Samantha Michaels, Criminal Justice Reporter at Mother Jones

We need to elect Gun Sense Candidates up and down the ballot.

And on top of that, we need to save the Supreme Court by flipping the U.S. Senate and electing the strongest gun safety ticket ever to the White House. Our very democracy is on the line.


There is hope. As we showed when we elected a Gun Sense Majority to the U.S. House in 2018, when we flipped the Virginia State House in 2019, and when we've thwarted the NRA time and time again, we are in this fight to win. If the history of our movement proves anything, it's that hope and victory are possible even when despair feels inescapable and change seems impossible.



With your help, we can make sure not only that our elected officials on every level prioritize gun safety, but also that our movement and our democracy lives to fight another day. We know that we can win. Make sure you're registered to vote today.

Over the past few months, we've moved much of our activism online and re-energized our fight to end gun violence in the midst of unprecedented times.


We now face two crises — both COVID-19 and gun violence are pervasive, deadly, and disproportionately affect Black and brown communities.


With an important election hanging in the balance, our volunteer-led Gun Sense Action Network (GSAN) makes it possible to fight for gun violence prevention while practicing social distancing and staying safe.


The Gun Sense Action Network is a volunteer community that takes action from home to elect leaders who will put the safety of our communities above special interests and the NRA. Whether you have one hour or three hours, you can make a big impact! In GSAN, we contact voters to educate them about updates to the voting process, talk to our volunteers to recruit for election events, and help mobilize our supporters to get out the vote for candidates who will prioritize gun safety.


Just by committing to take action for one hour a week from home, you can help make 2020 a winning year for gun safety. Join GSAN...


With such high stakes, we need your help to reach our supporters across the country. As always, we're so grateful to have you in this movement with us, and we hope you will join us in the fight to end gun violence.


As COVID-19 cases rise again in America and the country grapples with racial injustice, the NRA is unabashedly moving forward with reckless fear-mongering and leaning into racist, xenophobic arguments to advance its extreme "guns everywhere" agenda and drive up gun sales.


We can't let the NRA win in the 2020 elections. And that's why I am writing to tell you how Everytown's advocacy and political organizations are revamping our 2020 election strategies to adjust to the extraordinary circumstances we are all facing. Our work to elect gun sense champions up and down the ballot in November and defeat the NRA's #1 ally — Donald Trump — can only succeed if we can count on you to keep standing up to the NRA with an immediate donation.


Everytown is deploying our unprecedented online strength, protecting voting rights, and working to increase youth voter turnout to defeat NRA-backed candidates and elect gun sense candidates in November.


With nearly 6 million Everytown online supporters in our community and years of experience using digital organizing, the Everytown Victory Fund is better positioned than almost any organization in the country to mobilize online. Together, Everytown organizations and supporters have spent years perfecting sophisticated online communications and organizing tools. Now, with your help, we can ramp up our online activities in the most ambitious online organizing drive ever seen in a presidential election. Help us strengthen this giant online organizing effort to defeat Donald Trump and the NRA.


In an election environment heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have two critical challenges — communicating to voters in a unique climate and making sure people who support gun safety and gun sense candidates cast their vote. That's why Everytown is prepared to protect voters by ensuring people can vote by mail, vote early, and vote safely at polling places. And Everytown is working to make sure at least 100,000 new gun sense voters are registered to increase turnout for gun safety.


In combination with our massive get-out-the-vote operation, these voter protections will help assure that America's gun sense majority is heard loudly and clearly on Election Day. The Everytown Victory Fund will fuel gun sense voter turnout in November.


Data obtained by Everytown through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request shows a giant leap in March 2020 for gun sales that were allowed through what is known as the Charleston loophole. The loophole is simple: if the FBI fails to complete a background check within three business days, the buyer can get their gun — no questions asked.


We estimate that in just one month more than 1,100 guns fell into the hands of prohibited purchasers, including certain domestic abusers and people convicted of violent crimes, as a result of the massive gun-buying wave at the beginning of the pandemic.


The Charleston loophole is named after the tragic 2015 racist shooting at Charleston's Mother Emanuel AME Church. The shooter, a white supremacist, obtained the handgun through this loophole and used it to kill nine Black worshippers.


Take Action, Responsibility & Wildlife...
"Corporations Are People My Friend."
Our companies are known for creating products that enhance people's lives.  Through Sunset Corporation of America and its companies, we’re equally dedicated to improving lives.  Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.

The Sustainable Action Network (SAN), A Don Lichterman non-profit organization dedicated to building a global community raising awareness of corruption, injustice and the need for action across a full range of issues impacting people and animal/wildlife welfare around the world, such as conservation, climate change, campaign law, lobbying, government action and rescue work. SAN’s vision is to create safer world, free from political, environmental, and social oppression, where all the inhabitants of Earth can live in harmony within their own natural environments. Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.


Activism and Sustainability:

  • Gun Safety & Gun Laws

  • Cruelty Free

  • Death Penalty

  • Demand Action

  • Sustainable Action Network

Fairness and Equality:

  • Grammy District Advocacy

  • Privatization

  • Voters Issues & Gerrymandering

  • Private Prisons & the War on Drugs

  • Finance, Housing & the Economy Corporate Responsibility:

  • Candidates, Bills, Laws & Protections

  • Wildlife & Oceania

  • Labeling & Transparency

  • Comprehensive Captivity & Hunting Results Databases




Joe Biden & Kamala Harris, all Gun Sense Candidates, AR-15, SDNY v. NRA Lawsuit, Gun Safety Report!

  • Writer: Don Lichterman
    Don Lichterman
  • Aug 17, 2020
  • 8 min read

Over the past few months, we've moved much of our activism online and re-energized our fight to end gun violence in the midst of unprecedented times.


We now face two crises — both COVID-19 and gun violence are pervasive, deadly, and disproportionately affect Black and brown communities.


With an important election hanging in the balance, our volunteer-led Gun Sense Action Network (GSAN) makes it possible to fight for gun violence prevention while practicing social distancing and staying safe.


The Gun Sense Action Network is a volunteer community that takes action from home to elect leaders who will put the safety of our communities above special interests and the NRA. Whether you have one hour or three hours, you can make a big impact! In GSAN, we contact voters to educate them about updates to the voting process, talk to our volunteers to recruit for election events, and help mobilize our supporters to get out the vote for candidates who will prioritize gun safety.


Just by committing to take action for one hour a week from home, you can help make 2020 a winning year for gun safety. Join GSAN...


With such high stakes, we need your help to reach our supporters across the country. As always, we're so grateful to have you in this movement with us, and we hope you will join us in the fight to end gun violence.


As COVID-19 cases rise again in America and the country grapples with racial injustice, the NRA is unabashedly moving forward with reckless fear-mongering and leaning into racist, xenophobic arguments to advance its extreme "guns everywhere" agenda and drive up gun sales.


We can't let the NRA win in the 2020 elections. And that's why I am writing to tell you how Everytown's advocacy and political organizations are revamping our 2020 election strategies to adjust to the extraordinary circumstances we are all facing. Our work to elect gun sense champions up and down the ballot in November and defeat the NRA's #1 ally — Donald Trump — can only succeed if we can count on you to keep standing up to the NRA with an immediate donation.


Everytown is deploying our unprecedented online strength, protecting voting rights, and working to increase youth voter turnout to defeat NRA-backed candidates and elect gun sense candidates in November.


With nearly 6 million Everytown online supporters in our community and years of experience using digital organizing, the Everytown Victory Fund is better positioned than almost any organization in the country to mobilize online. Together, Everytown organizations and supporters have spent years perfecting sophisticated online communications and organizing tools. Now, with your help, we can ramp up our online activities in the most ambitious online organizing drive ever seen in a presidential election. Help us strengthen this giant online organizing effort to defeat Donald Trump and the NRA.


In an election environment heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have two critical challenges — communicating to voters in a unique climate and making sure people who support gun safety and gun sense candidates cast their vote. That's why Everytown is prepared to protect voters by ensuring people can vote by mail, vote early, and vote safely at polling places. And Everytown is working to make sure at least 100,000 new gun sense voters are registered to increase turnout for gun safety.


In combination with our massive get-out-the-vote operation, these voter protections will help assure that America's gun sense majority is heard loudly and clearly on Election Day. The Everytown Victory Fund will fuel gun sense voter turnout in November.


Data obtained by Everytown through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request shows a giant leap in March 2020 for gun sales that were allowed through what is known as the Charleston loophole. The loophole is simple: if the FBI fails to complete a background check within three business days, the buyer can get their gun — no questions asked.


We estimate that in just one month more than 1,100 guns fell into the hands of prohibited purchasers, including certain domestic abusers and people convicted of violent crimes, as a result of the massive gun-buying wave at the beginning of the pandemic.


The Charleston loophole is named after the tragic 2015 racist shooting at Charleston's Mother Emanuel AME Church. The shooter, a white supremacist, obtained the handgun through this loophole and used it to kill nine Black worshippers.


The NRA believes everyday citizens want AR-15s. We know everyday citizens want universal background checks.

Thank you for being with us as we work to win lifesaving victories in what has become an even more consequential election year.


Take a look at what the NRA recently tweeted.

Simply put, the AR-15 is an extremely dangerous weapon of war designed to kill as many people as possible.


Everyday citizens don’t want AR-15s. Everyday citizens want to feel safe in their communities, not live in constant fear of the next tragedy.


We’re doing everything we can to advocate for the 90% of Americans who want universal background checks — it’s something we know we can accomplish if we work together, so we hope you will join us today.

Universal background checks were passed in the House almost a year and a half ago, but the legislation is still sitting on Mitch McConnell’s desk in the Senate. And it’ll sit there as long as groups like the NRA maintain their control over Congress.


Americans need commonsense gun safety laws like universal background checks — not the NRA’s dangerous more guns everywhere agenda. With your help, we’ll be able to elect gun safety candidates to flip the Senate and pass universal background checks into law once and for all.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a sweeping lawsuit to dissolve the NRA in its entirety.

After years of contributing to America's gun violence crisis and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people from gun violence, the NRA and its leadership deserve nothing less than the end of their malicious organization.


The real cost of the NRA's corruption isn't money; it's American lives. The NRA has peddled fear to sell more guns and fought lifesaving gun laws at every turn, doing everything in its power to preserve an America where gun violence is the rule, not the exception.


But this isn't the end: We still need to fight the NRA as hard as we can. Just this morning, the NRA announced its intent to spend millions of dollars in battleground states ahead of November. We have the NRA on its heels, but we can't let them claim a victory in any way.


Now is the time to make it count. The NRA needs to be held accountable, not just because it is a fraudulent, morally bankrupt organization; it also needs to be put out of power because it does not care if its agenda continues to lead to hundreds of people being shot and killed and injured every day in America. Help fight the NRA and end gun violence in America once and for all.


Here are some of the highlights from Attorney General Letitia James's announcement:

  • “Mr. LaPierre exploited the organization for his and his family's financial benefit, and the benefit of a close circle of NRA staff, board members, and vendors.”

  • The NRA's leaders promoted “a culture of self-dealing, mismanagement, and negligent oversight at the NRA that was illegal, oppressive, and fraudulent.”

  • “In the past two years alone, Mr. LaPierre spent more than 3.6 million dollars on...travel agent services.”

  • “For these years of fraud and misconduct, we are seeking an order to dissolve the NRA in its entirety.”

We are activists. We do oppose the NRA. And we aren't shy about it. Fuel our fight against the NRA's dangerous agenda and help end gun violence in America today.


Joe Biden just chose Kamala Harris to be his running mate. That means in November we have the chance to elect the strongest President and Vice President for gun safety in American history.


In the last few years, we've witnessed the continued toll of American gun violence. In this country, 100 lives a day are cut short due to gun violence, hundreds more are wounded, and far too many families are left grieving. Horrific tragedies like the devastating mass shootings in Las Vegas, NV in 2017, Parkland, FL in 2018, and El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH last year left the entire country grieving. Daily gun violence in communities across the country worsens. And yet, we are all still left waiting for the real change we need to end gun violence.


Electing Joe Biden as President and Kamala Harris as Vice President will bring us a giant step closer to that real change. And we're working to ensure Joe and Kamala are in the White House in 2021. Help elect the strongest gun safety ticket in history with a donation to the Everytown Victory Fund today.

Joe Biden has spent a lifetime working to protect Americans from gun violence, repeatedly taking on the NRA—and winning. He has prioritized gun safety in his campaign, pledging action in his first 100 days in office—and we can trust that he'll fight for stronger gun laws.

Senator Harris has co-sponsored critical gun violence prevention legislation, including requiring background checks on all gun sales and prohibiting dating partners and stalkers from having guns. And when she ran for the Democratic nomination for president earlier this year, Sen. Harris vowed to take executive action in the first 100 days in office if Congress failed to pass comprehensive gun safety legislation.


Together, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will bring the leadership our country needs to save lives.


We have less than 3 months left to help elect a Gun Sense President and Gun Sense Vice President — and we need you there with us, fighting to make it happen.

John Feinblatt, Everytown Victory Fund
Take Action, Responsibility & Wildlife...
"Corporations Are People My Friend."
Our companies are known for creating products that enhance people's lives.  Through Sunset Corporation of America and its companies, we’re equally dedicated to improving lives.  Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.

The Sustainable Action Network (SAN), A Don Lichterman non-profit organization dedicated to building a global community raising awareness of corruption, injustice and the need for action across a full range of issues impacting people and animal/wildlife welfare around the world, such as conservation, climate change, campaign law, lobbying, government action and rescue work. SAN’s vision is to create safer world, free from political, environmental, and social oppression, where all the inhabitants of Earth can live in harmony within their own natural environments. Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.


Activism and Sustainability:

  • Gun Safety & Gun Laws

  • Cruelty Free

  • Death Penalty

  • Demand Action

  • Sustainable Action Network

Fairness and Equality:

  • Grammy District Advocacy

  • Privatization

  • Voters Issues & Gerrymandering

  • Private Prisons & the War on Drugs

  • Finance, Housing & the Economy Corporate Responsibility:

  • Candidates, Bills, Laws & Protections

  • Wildlife & Oceania

  • Labeling & Transparency

  • Comprehensive Captivity & Hunting Results Databases




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