Moms Demand Action Founder Shannon Watts on the Facts About Gun Violence the Headlines Miss—and How She Finds the Courage to Keep Fighting

Eleven years ago, I sat in front of my television and watched in horror as the media broadcast the aftermath of a mass shooting inside an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty children and six educators had been murdered in the sanctity of an American elementary school, and for so many mothers like me, that reality was both unfathomable and unbearable. The next day, I channeled my devastation and outrage into a new Facebook page. What was meant to be an online conversation about the need for women to rise up against the gun industry quickly became the largest offline women-led volunteer movement in the nation.

Today, Moms Demand Action has over 10 million supporters and a chapter in every state. The organization is focused on tackling gun violence culturally, legislatively, and electorally, and its focus isn't only mass shootings, which make up about 1 percent of the gun violence in America, but the daily gun violence that kills over 120 people and wounds hundreds more. It's also not just moms anymore—survivors, students, and all caring Americans are working together across the country to end this crisis.

Clearly, there's strength in numbers. Moms Demand Action volunteers have helped stop the NRA's priority legislation in statehouses roughly 90 percent of the time every year for the past decade; passed over 500 gun safety laws across the country; changed corporate policies; educated millions of Americans about secure gun storage; and elected hundreds of volunteers to office. In 2022 alone, over 3,000 local, state, and federal candidates championed gun safety in their elections. Hundreds of our own volunteers have also run for office and won—from Congress to statehouses to school boards to city councils.

And, last summer, our volunteers helped break a 30-year federal logjam to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which established an enhanced background check process for gun buyers under age 21, provided federal funding to implement state Red Flag laws, disarmed domestic abusers by addressing the dating partner loophole, and funded community violence intervention programs.

All of that work has led to a seismic shift in American politics. In 2012, a quarter of all Democrats in Congress had an A-rating from the NRA—now, not a single one does. In the spring of 2013, bipartisan gun safety legislation failed by a handful of votes in the Senate—but in 2022, we got 15 Republican Senators to vote yes and pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first federal gun safety legislation to become law in a generation.

And while we're winning the battle to diminish the gun industry's special interests and to save lives, there is still so much more work to do. Gun violence continues to tear at the fabric of our communities, and it is now the leading cause of death among children and teens in America.

We need to do more to help the Black and Latinx communities that bear the daily brunt of gun violence in our nation, much of which never makes headlines. Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people experience higher rates of gun homicides overall, including higher rates of fatal shootings by police, than their white peers. Understanding how gun violence affects historically marginalized communities is critical to developing data-driven and culturally competent interventions and policy solutions, including community violence intervention programs.

We need to pass new laws that require or allow waiting periods, secure gun storage, and extreme risk protection orders to address gun suicides. The annual gun suicide rate in the United States increased by 11 percent from 2019 to 2022—the highest documented level since at least 1968. The single largest increase was experienced by the American Indian and Alaska Native community (a 66% increase), followed by the Black community (a 42% increase) and the Latinx community (a 28% increase).

We need to pass a federal law preventing people who are convicted of violent or threatening hate crime misdemeanors from buying or having a gun. In an average year, over 25,000 hate crimes in the US involve a firearm—nearly 70 every day. The vast majority of hate crimes are directed against people of color, religious minorities, and LGBTQ people. Easy access to guns gives a single, hate-filled individual the means to shatter numerous lives and whole communities.

We must close loopholes in federal and state law that allow abusive partners and stalkers to easily access guns. The crisis of domestic violence is closely linked to the widespread and growing use of guns by abusers. Two-thirds of women killed by an intimate partner are killed with a gun, and every month, an average of 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner. Nearly 1 million women alive today have reported being shot or shot at by intimate partners. 

These crises won't be fixed overnight; I've learned that change doesn't come from just one protest, one social media post, or even one policy. What our country needs is transformational, intergenerational change—the kind that results from long-term, collective advocacy. We need everyone, everywhere, to get off the sidelines and join our fight for gun safety.

After serving as a full-time volunteer for over a decade, I'm often asked if I have hope that we can solve this crisis in my lifetime. My answer is "yes." When I look back, the overwhelming feeling I take away from the long days and tough fights is that politics is cyclical, and there is always hope. 

As activist Mariame Kaba said, "Hope is a discipline." We must hope for a world free from gun violence. Hope for our future. And hope about the direction our country is taking because of the people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work to make it better every single day. 

Shannon Watts is a gun violence prevention activist and the founder of Moms Demand Action, the nation’s largest grassroots group fighting against gun violence. Learn more at MomsDemandAction.org and follow Shannon on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.