Gun Safety Weekly, Lead to Life, Kyle Lemle, Brontë Velez, NRA's Russian money, Trump and Pence Speak at National Rifle Association (NRA) Convention & Wear Orange, help to ban the sale and use of deadly assault weapons!

Over the past few months people across the country have marched, rallied, and called on elected officials to finally take a stand against gun violenceThe outpouring of support and action has been nothing less than extraordinary, but we’re not done yet.

One mass shooting after another has shown that assault weapons are malignant tools of mass violence – but our elected officials idle away while they should be keeping our communities safe and stopping preventable gun deaths.

Tell Congress: Ban the sale and use of deadly assault weapons!

There is no reason for any civilian to have access to semi-automatic military-style weapons of war that have been used time and time again to commit atrocious action of mass violence in our schools, theaters, and places of worship.

Demand that Congress ban the sale and use of deadly assault weapons today!

Thanks for taking action with us today to get military-style weapons of war off of our streets. To change everything, we need everyone.

Fight Back Against the NRA’s Lies. Since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has faced plummeting approval ratings, and its business partners have been dropping like flies or taking action to make their gun sales safer. 

Thanks to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, however, the NRA’s hateful lies will garner national attention this weekend. Trump and Pence are speaking at the NRA’s annual convention, which starts today in Dallas, Texas. Expect a lot of the same old lies—from “a good guy with a gun” to the myth that gun-free zones are unsafe. 

But not everyone knows how to decipher what’s true and what’s not. That’s why we need your help! 

It’s time to call out the NRA for its blatant, dangerous lies!

We partnered with Guns Down to produce this handy myth vs. fact guide. So be sure to tweet today, and throughout the weekend, as the NRA perpetuates some of its favorite lies at its national convention.

Donald Trump just finished speaking at the NRA convention for the fourth year in a row and, as expected, has recommitted to supporting their dangerous "guns everywhere" agenda. After millions of Americans marched for an end to gun violence, and with 90% of the country urging common sense gun legislation, it's alarming to know that this Administration continues to side with the NRA's extremist leaders. But after the NRA dumped more than $30 million into Trump's presidential campaign, the NRA expects to get what it paid for.

But there's one thing the NRA doesn't have — and it's all of us. We're the counterweight to the NRA. And with our own powerful grassroots supporters in every county, town, city, and state, we're standing up to ANYONE who is beholden to the gun lobby. 

The NRA has Trump, but we have you — help us be as powerful as possible! 

Trump has promised to support the NRA leadership's extreme agenda, and Mike Pence's attendance solidifies that claim. But we're powerful too. We've been going head to head with the NRA in cities and states across the country, defeating their dangerous gun bills, helping to enact common sense gun safety laws, and working to get gun sense candidates elected up and down the ballot. We will continue to stand up to the NRA, but we can't do this without you. Make a gift right now and ensure we have everything we need to fight the NRA.

If you were holding out any sort of hope that the Parkland shooting would push Republicans to give even an inch on guns, Friday's NRA convention should serve as an infuriating wake-up call.
Despite having a multitude of scandals on their hands, Donald Trump and Mike Pence both took the time to pledge the GOP's undying loyalty to the NRA and to the idea that the only acceptable solution to violence in this country is to add more guns.

Trump called the NRA "a great organization that loves this country." He promised to support arming teachers, militarizing schools and doubling down on the NRA's destructive, murderous mentality. And he leaned on the more than 70,000 NRA members present to do everything they can to keep the GOP in power in November.

Let's be clear: There is no shooting horrible enough, or loss of life great enough, to change the GOP's relationship with the NRA. For Republican politicians in Washington, money always talks. And few special interests throw around money quite like the NRA.

The only way we can end the NRA's grip on our politics is to throw Republicans out of office. Democracy for America is backing candidates up and down the ballot who will fight for common sense gun reform.

Please help supercharge our critical electoral work so we can defeat the NRA.

Lots of Democrats are dreaming of a big, blue wave this year that will take down the GOP and give us a shot at finally addressing gun violence. But the NRA is already getting ready to try to use their money -- and their dedicated following -- to turn the tide.

After the horrifying shooting in Parkland, the NRA announced the biggest fundraising haul that they had seen in 20 years: $2.4 million in the month of March alone. They understand the importance of this midterm election, and they're going to do everything they can to smear our candidates and attack our agenda. 

DFA is working to elect a powerful, diverse slate of anti-NRA progressives -- folks like Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Andrew Gillum in Florida and Randy Bryce in Wisconsin. We know that the NRA is going to come after them hard. We need your help in order to put them over the top and take power away from the NRA's allies.

Trump says a lot of things and since he became President, Congress has not passed a strong gun safety law. Even after the Las Vegas music festival shooting. Even after the Sutherland Springs church shooting. Even after the Parkland school shooting.

I'm not going to sit here and wait for Trump and Congress to take action while our state lawmakers have the ability to pass a Red Flag law right now — there's too much at stake.

Join me: Message your state lawmakers and demand they help keep New Jerseyans safe by passing a Red Flag law!

Kyle Lemle and Brontë Velez are co-founders of the non-profit “Lead to Life,” which works to melt down guns and turn them into gardening tools. Powerful, right? Well, Lead to Life’s vision doesn’t stop there. Once the weapons have been transformed, the gardening tools are used for ceremonial tree plantings in areas that have been impacted by gun violence, such as mass shootings, suicide, domestic violence, and gang warfare.

Lead to Life’s most recent project includes 50 guns received from the San Francisco-based violence prevention organization, United Playaz. Lead to Life is planning on transforming the guns into shovels, which will be used to plant 50 trees to commemorate the 50 years since civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. 
Alongside Minnesota metal artist James Brenner, Lead to Life will host a casting ceremony on April 6th, 2018 at The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, Georgia. 
Once the shovels are used to dig the holes for the trees, they will be donated to farmers in the Atlanta area through programs such as Grow Where You Are Farm, Truly Living Well Center, and Ganstas to Growers, which trains formerly imprisoned youth. 
“We’re liberating the metal in the weapon from its history of violence — and giving it a new life,” said Kyle Lemle, co-founder of Lead to Life.
If you, or someone you know, lives in the Atlanta area, please show your support for this fantastic cause! 
Lead to Life hopes to host a similar campaign next fall in Oakland, California, where gun owners can disable their own weapons and drop off the gun parts. The guns will be transformed into gardening tools to help plant more urban forests and gardens. “Violence against each other and violence against the planet — they come from the same crisis within us. We are disconnected from each other, and need to heal,” said Lemle.

For more information about Lead to Life, click here to visit their website. You can also follow them on Facebook, and please be sure to spread the word! Image Source: Lead to Life.

The annual gathering of the NRA's extremist leadership and their special guests, including President Trump, kicked off this wee in Dallas. The Trump-NRA "guns everywhere" agenda will be on full display in Dallas, even as the FBI investigates whether a top Russian banker and ally to Vladimir Putin illegally funneled money to the NRA to help the Trump campaign in 2016.

We're here on the ground in Dallas fighting the gun lobby's dangerous rhetoric, and we're also going big to make sure the public knows about the NRA's connections to Russian money. How big? Everytown welcomed the NRA to Dallas with a bunch of billboard trucks rolling around with this image:

How Much Money did the NRA take from Russia? 
How Much Money did the NRA take from Russia?
Now, we need your help to ensure we can keep going big to prevent the NRA's priority legislation from passing Congress.

We're putting the NRA on notice for their relationship with Russian officials AND Russian money. This is just one more example of the NRA putting profits over people while trying to pass some of the most reckless gun bills Congress has ever seen.

And we know they're going to spend millions more to keep their allies in Congress and to keep pushing their dangerous gun policies in Washington. Chip in to fuel our opposition to the NRA's dangerous "guns everywhere" agenda.

After Americans across the country voted, we're excited to share the official Wear Orange 2018 T-shirt with you! Wear Orange Weekend starts in exactly one month, on June 1st, and with it comes an all day online and on the ground celebration of Gun Violence Awareness day, followed by a weekend filled with hundreds of events in states across the country. With hundreds of thousands of people who believe in a future free from gun violence, we're gearing up to show the world who we are and why we fight. And now you can get ready in the new Wear Orange gear for 2018!

In honor of so many gun sense champions voting on their favorite shirt, we're giving you 20% off the T-shirt with code YOURVOICE18 when you shop the new Wear Orange 2018 gear today!
Take 20% off the Wear Orange T-shirt with code: YOURVOICE18
Between the rallies, the marches, the BBQs, and more, Wear Orange Weekend promises to be an inspiring moment for our movement as hundreds of thousands of gun sense champions come together in this fight to end gun violence. 

And now you can make sure you are too. Use code: YOURVOICE18 and make sure you get your 2018 Wear Orange gear in time for Wear Orange Weekend.


Thank you for Wearing Orange.