Some Good News! In 6 Parts

It makes me happy to share some good news - most of it around gun control. Cause for hope.

1. Congress finally funded CHIP which must be a big relief to the families of the 9 million kids who depend on it. It's not over, of course, CHIP will likely face significant funding challenges in that timeframe but still, for now, phew!

2. The #BoycottNRA movement is gaining traction. You can join in! Check out Drain the NRA's comprehensive spreadsheet of companies to put pressure on.

3. Dick's Sporting Goods made a wonderful announcement today. They will no longer:

• Sell assault-style rifles (a.k.a. "modern sporting rifles".) 
• Sell firearms to anyone under 21 years of age.
• Sell high capacity magazines.

Dicks has never sold bump stocks and never will. 

They also called on elected officials to enact commonsense gun control legislation including:

• Banning assault-style firearms
• Raising the minimum age to purchase firearms to 21
• Banning high capacity magazines and bump stocks
• Requiring universal background checks that include relevant mental health information and previous interactions with the law
• Ensuring a complete universal database of those banned from buying firearms
• Closing the private sale and gun show loophole that waives the necessity of background checks.

I found this incredibly heartening - the CEO of a big company actually has a conscience and a heart and is able to use them in concert with his brain! 

Naturally, Dick's is getting a TON of vitriolic blow-back so I called both my local store and also the corporate office to thank them and tell them they've got my business. 

You can find your local Dick's store here. And you can reach their main office at 1-877-846-9997, option 4 and then option 3.

I also tweeted at them to say thank you. You can respond to their announcement tweet or just tweet at @DICKS.

4. Then Walmart followed suit with its own announcement that they are raising their age of purchase for guns to 21 and will stop selling toys that resemble guns. Walmart had already stopped selling assault rifles in 2015. Regardless of how you might feel about Walmart, they need to hear that you support their decision.

You can like and respond to their announcement tweet here.  Or give them a call at 1-800-925-6278.

5. Last but in no way least, is the Parkland students who survived the shooting and are now leading a new wave of activism to pass meaningful gun control laws. They're awesome!!! Read more about Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg and check out the march info below.

6. March for Our Lives in DC on March 24th. Read more and consider joining (there will probably be a bunch of local marches at the same time, too.) 

3 Ways To Help Stop Gun Violence

It's been hard to focus on much of anything since the news broke about the Parkland shootings. Unfortunately, thoughts and prayers are not as effective as one would hope, so here are three simple ways you can help to stop the growing wave of gun violence.

1. Call your Representative and urge him/her to support the Stop School Violence Act H.R. 4909 that invests in early intervention and prevention to stop violence (read more about this bill here.) 

• Find your Rep's phone number here. 
• Follow the script below - feel free to use your own words and provide any personal experience you have of gun violence:
  
  "Hi, my name is YOUR NAME and I'm a constituent calling from YOUR TOWN/CITY. I'm calling to urge Rep. NAME to pass the STOP School Violence Act (H.R.4909) because children and teachers should not be risking their lives every day and too few of our schools and law enforcement have the tools to identify, intervene and help people who display at-risk behaviors. there is evidence that these strategies and tools really work. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me."

2. Join and/or help spread the word about the Weds, March 14th National School Walk Out being organized by the Women's March folks. Here's the Facebook event.

3. Help register likely Democrats to VOTE! Our options for preventing gun violence are limited unless and until we elect more members of Congress who are not beholden to the NRA for campaign contributions. Check Indivisible if you don't already know of a group doing voter registration in your area.