The News Station: The Evolving Gun-Control Strategy on Capitol Hill

“Even in the face of fierce opposition from the NRA, four Republican governors led the push for and eventually secured new gun-control measures after 17 people were gunned down at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida just three years ago. But Washington is a different beast than even state capitals.”

The 97 Percent inaugural Gun Safety Symposium was joined by advocates, researchers, legislators, as well as members of the press, and our speakers were featured across online publications such as the following piece by The News Station. Excerpt and link to full article below:

After the 2018 midterms, there was a sense of excitement in the air. The fresh and young freshman class energized each other. You could feel their almost limitless optimism. And gun-control was a key part of their agenda. After all, some 17 House Democrats were swept into power after not just promising, but vowing to do all they could to curtail gun violence.

This contemporary, if brief, era of good feelings is a distant memory now.

“I have to say that it is a lot harder to be able to create the policy and change,” sophomore Democratic Congresswoman Lucy McBath of Georgia said Thursday at a bipartisan gun-control e-event hosted by advocacy group 97-Percent.

McBath lost her 17-year-old boy, Jordan Davis, in 2012 – an unimaginable (though all too real for too many Americans) loss which spurred her on this journey that landed her in the Capitol. But you get to the Capitol through the pavement. Blacktop and marble have very different feels.

“I think when you are working on the ground — the grassroots, you know, mobilizing, and as a survivor and as a victim myself, you know — we have the sense of urgency that we know, we see every single day, what’s happening in communities around the country, we want to get it done,” McBath said. “We want to save as many lives as we can.”

While she remains hopeful, her tune has changed.

“But to really look at it realistically, we know the change is slowly evolving. It is a culture that we’re having to change, and it takes time to do so,” McBath said. “So that is probably the thing that has been maybe the most distressing to me.”

Read Full Article HERE.