Shelley Elkins is fundraising
Help Us Beat the NRA's Fundraising Record
My first experience with gun violence was almost 20 years ago in Chicago.
It was December and my then fiancé, now husband, and I were coming home from work. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a car slow down and the next thing we knew, there was a person pointing a gun in our faces - first at Mattey, then at me, then at him again. He told us to give him our stuff and get in the alley. We dropped all of it - my purse, my work bag, his grad school backpack, some shopping bags - and we ran. In fact, I ran so fast that I ran out of one of my shoes.
Even today, certain cars, certain streets and certain corners make my heart start racing again.
I wish that was my only experience with gun violence.
On this very day in 2011, my mother’s brother, my Uncle Jerry, was one of five people shot and killed in a targeted shooting rampage in Arizona. I can still hear my mom’s voice, sobbing, when she called to tell me her baby brother was gone.
I wish I was the only one with a story like this. But 1 in 5 Americans now say they have had a family member fatally shot. One in five. We are the only country with more civilian-owned firearms than people. The only one. Every day, more than 120 Americans are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded. Every single day. And guns are now the leading cause of death among U.S. children and adolescents. The number one cause.
I am starting a fundraiser inspired by another unfathomable fact:
In March 2018, in the wake of the Parkland School Shooting, the NRA broke a 15-year fundraising record, raising $2.4 million. It was not the first time the NRA saw a surge in donations following a school shooting but it was the biggest. Most of the donations came from small donors who gave less than $200.
June is Gun Violence Awareness Month. Let’s beat the NRA’s record and raise $2.5 million for the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.
Yes, it feels totally absurd to set my fundraising goal at $2.5 million. But do you know what’s more absurd? The gun violence problem in America.
If 100k people gave just $25, we could do it.
About the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund:
The Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund is the education, research, and litigation arm of Everytown for Gun Safety—the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country and the home of Moms Demand Action, the nation's largest grassroots volunteer network working to end gun violence.
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