Close to 20 years ago, I began work on a book that would be subtitled "The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America." At time of the first wave of school shootings (Columbine & precursors), 3 things were stymying the movement. 1/14
1) lack of money; 2) unrealistic policy goals; 3) and a message that just wasn't inspiring everyday sympathizers. 2/14 scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/americas…
Much has changed. The movement is no longer missing. 3/14 washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…
Philanthropists have made big commitments. But more importantly, social media have drastically cut the costs of communication, coordination & mobilization. People who never would have met now "gather" on Facebook to build solidarity & organize their offline work. 4/14
The gun violence prevention movement is much more strategic, too. It's working state by state to pass laws that empower local authorities to enforce the gun laws we already have, esp. around domestic violence. (The @NRA has a point that implementation is pretty bad.) 5/14
Most important, there is a critical mass of survivors and family members - more than 1,000 of them, organized state-by-state - as well as tens of thousands of energized moms who are providing a moral vision: We don't have to live like this. 6/14
People say, "After Sandy Hook, nothing changed." That's wrong. A lot changed. The movement got moving. But the groundwork had been laid by Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tucson, and Aurora. 7/14
Everyday places that became steppingstones on our road to redemption.
Young people from those mass shootings also mobilized - and inspired adults to do so. 9/14
In my 2006 book, I examined historical movements for social reform that faced big obstacles but mobilized masses of Americans. What was their secret? They framed their activity in terms of caring for children. @MomsDemand picks up a long tradition of women's activism. 10/14
What I did not foresee when I wrote that book was that children would become a moral voice of the movement. The #MSDStrong kids shame us with #NeverAgain. They ask us, their civic parents, to take care of them. 11/14
Change is slow. Our institutions were designed to resist it. Gun policy is complicated. (Sorry.) But this isn't fundamentally a policy debate. It's about whether we can do good things, together, as Americans without demeaning each other's civic place. 12/14
It's also about political power. And power isn't just about money, or even primarily so. It's about creating a moral vision and organizing to attain it. 13/14
That's what the young people at #MSDStrong are doing. They are developing a moral vision and asking us, their civic parents, to stop fighting and join them. Is this different? Yes, I think it is. 14/14
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