No Tickets to the Gun Show @LauraBedrossian #GunSense #SanBernardino #2a

NO TICKETS TO THE GUN SHOW
GUEST POST
BY 
LAURA BEDROSSIAN

Do you remember where you were when your first mass shooting happened?
 
Mine was Columbine.
 
Is that a question that you want to be asking future generations?
 
In a sea of social media posts rhetorically asking for changes to gun policies (or lack thereof) in light of the latest of the shootings, and others calling anyone who wants the shootings to stop “crazy liberals who want to take freedom away,” it occurred to me that some people don’t know how the U.S. government actually works.
 
Posting a sad post about how you want things to change or adding in the latest Facebook profile filter to show your support for X,Y,Z, is great in rallying support for with your friends, but doesn’t actually make change happen.
 
But here’s how they can change:
 

1. Think about how things can change. Read this amazing piece from Slate’s Will Oremus on how Australia immediately set a gun control policy after the 1996 Port Arthur tragedy when a gunman opened fire on tourists, killing 35 people and wounding 23 more by the time he was finished. Guess what—there was an immediate bipartisan deal. This can absolutely happen in the U.S., whoever says otherwise either wants to own a gun or is in the pocket of the NRA.

 

1. Make change happen—it’s your elected officials’’ job. Contact your elected officials by phone, email, and social media, and tell them you want changes now. If you have the time, call them once a day and be calm, but firm. Tell them what you want and that you want to know in real terms what they will do to make this happen. This website will help you to find your Congressional Representatives and Senators: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members.

 

1. Donations are real threats for politicians. Contact other officials by phone, email, and social media.  This article will give you the tools you need to call every single senator who not only voted against a sensible gun control law (here’s a summary of that proposed law—and it’s not even strict enough), but also tells you who received money from the NRA. There are 46 senators on the list and it will be incredibly effective to call each and every one. Those who may not be your elected official, can be told how you will donate to their opponent in the re-election. Read and call—Shannon Coulter outlines everything you need to do, down to what you say to the people who are not your Senators.

 

1. Get angry that GunTV is a thing that is happening.

 

1. Watch this amazing bit from Jim Jeffries on guns:

 
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OZIOE6aMBk.
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9UFyNy-rw4.
 

1. Here’s the Second Amendment: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment. Read it.

 

1. Here’s a little reminder on how this all works, School House Rock style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0.

 
 
Let’s make the future brighter for our country. All it takes are some phone calls and emails. Make our politicians do their jobs.