1/ Gun violence is a public health crisis we can solve if leaders *live up to their campaign promises* & prioritize life-saving community investments and gun reform legislation
#TheTimeIsNow for our leaders to act and for us to hold them accountable to the promises they made us
2/ In the early days of the Biden administration we've seen:
- House pass life saving reforms
- Biden take key steps & commit $50B to community programs
- Senate has done *NOTHING*
3/ We are way past done waiting for our lawmakers to find just the right political moment to act.
#TheTimeIsNow to find a credible path forward on reforms
4/ If senators can't find 60 votes for robust life-saving reforms, @SenSchumer must move to alter the filibuster and pass legislation w/ a simple majority.
@JoeBiden must address and prioritize the public health crisis of gun violence at his April 28th joint address
@SenSchumer@JoeBiden 5/ Simply put: we've seen what bold leadership from @SenSchumer and @JoeBiden looks like. They got Covid-relief passed into law *despite* overwhelming opposition.
We need their leadership to save lives from gun violence *today*
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@POTUS 2/ I say this b/c that's what @POTUS promised us on the campaign trail.
He didn't run on urging the Senate to act, he ran on brining lawmakers together to get big things done -- including on gun reform.
@POTUS 3/ I'm asking him to live up to those promises & to treat gun violence reform w/ the same priority & engagement that he treated COVID & now infrastructure
1/ This story quotes an anonymous "Democratic strategist" who argues "voting on an assault weapons ban would help fuel Republican arguments that the Biden administration is coming to take their guns"
This 🧵explains why this kind of thinking isn't supported by data or facts
2/ Pundits have long recycled notion that lawmakers who support gun safety are minutes away from losing their seats. Narrative began after Dem loses in 1994 following Clinton's gun reform push
Do me a favor: ignore the pundits & ask the statisticians who actually study this...
3/ "The vote for gun control mattered, but the vote for the tax increase and healthcare were more important," says Gary Jacobson, who has done a statistical analysis of what votes affected the outcome of the 1994 election. More on that here: usnews.com/news/articles/…
1/ 🧵 I want to take a moment to talk about hate & abuse that's directed at those of us who work in progressive politics or policy....
2/ I'm struggling with how to frame this thread. I don't want to come off as just complaining about some nasty comments at a time when there are so many larger injustices that folks -- particularly women and people of color -- confront every single day
3/ But I also don't want to stay silent. I don't want to normalize coordinated online attacks against me for simply being who I am. I don't want to accept daily directed hate as part of the cost of speaking out in our democracy. I want to find a proactive way of combating it.
1/ I want to take a moment to highlight some of @POTUS' priorities for fighting the public health pandemic of gun violence in the administration's just-released skinny budget...they're really exciting! 🧵
@POTUS 2/ @POTUS is supporting existing programs to improve background check systems 👏
This is crucially important because the background check system has been strained by the surge in gun sales. (Note: during Trump, @FBI asked for more funding to keep up with the demand)
@POTUS@FBI 3/ @POTUS is seeking investment in new programs to incentivize State adoption of gun licensing laws.
10 states have licensing laws & we know that they're essential for ⬇️ gun violence & trafficking. (IE after CT implemented licensing, gun homicides ⬇️ 40%, gun suicides ⬇️ 15%)
@POTUS 2/ PLCAA came out of a slew of legal challenges in 1990s & early 2000s that culminated in an effort to sue gunmakers for continuing to knowingly sell guns to dealers who regularly funneled weapons to criminals and for failing to include safety features that could've saved lives.
@POTUS 3/ In 2000, Smith & Wesson settled several of these civil lawsuits and agreed to sell safety devices with its hand-guns and hold its authorized dealers to a certain code of conduct.
1/ Last week, after @JoeBiden said he'll focus on infrastructure rather than gun violence prevention as his next legislative priority, over 87 gun violence prevention organizations came together urging @POTUS to prioritize gun reform & Congress to work w/ him on it #TheTimeIsNow
@JoeBiden@POTUS 2/ We argued that @POTUS inherited a ⬆️ gun violence crisis & the country needed his leadership to save lives *now*
In fact, since his press conference on Thursday, we've experienced: