Ask every elected office holder if they support an assault weapons ban - from school board to mayor to governor to president and demand that they follow through. This is our America. We cannot go to school, church, shopping, dining, concerts, parades without the threat of gun violence destroying our lives, families and communities forever. We must reclaim our right to life and liberty. Ban assault weapons now.

Please sign and pass along this petition so that New Orleans can “be in that number” of cities and states engaged in reparatory justice actions to address the glaring racial disparities in personal well-being between Black and white children and adults in the United States.

The number one cause of death for children in the United States is firearm-related. Yes, you read that correctly. Surpassing motor vehicle crashes for the first time ever. As a mother and just a human -being, this is horrendous, terrifying, and frankly makes me sick. This is so preventable. Something has to change. Our forefathers never would have guessed what the future would hold. So what can we do? What do we need to change? The answer - gun reform. Gun. Reform. Works. It just does. Other countries have proved it. Below is an article of other nations that have enacted reform and change for safer gun laws. We need to do the same! Things first change at a state level. If many states enact change, the likelihood that change will happen at a federal level will go up. Please sign this petition to tell Nebraska politicians to protect us and our children with common sense gun control laws and to ban assault-style firearms. Thank you and be safe. May 26 (Reuters) - A shooting at a Texas elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers has revived a push for new gun safety laws in the United States, which has more firearms than people and more permissive gun laws than many other high-income countries. Over 200 mass shootings have been reported in the United States in 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group. More than 45,000 people died from gun-related injuries, including suicides, in the United States in 2020, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Stricter gun laws have been introduced in the U.S. Congress after past mass shootings, but they have been defeated by Republicans, independents and some moderate Democrats. Here's how other nations have reacted after similar shootings. CANADA After the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique massacre, in which 14 women engineering students were killed in their Montreal classroom, new legislation required safety courses, background checks and increased penalties for some gun crimes. In 2020, shortly after a gunman shot and killed 13 people in Portapique, Nova Scotia, Canada banned more than 1,500 models of "assault-style" firearms and components, and set limits on how destructive bullets could be. Canada's rate of firearm homicides is 0.5 per 100,000 people, versus the United States' rate of 4.12, the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) said in a 2021 analysis. AUSTRALIA After a gunman killed 35 people at a cafe and tourist site in 1996, Australia banned all semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns. Thousands of unlicensed firearms were surrendered under a gun amnesty program, and licensed gun owners required to take a safety course. read more The chances of being murdered by a gun in Australia plunged to 0.15 per 100,000 people in 2014 from 0.54 per 100,000 people in 1996, a decline of 72 percent, a Reuters analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed. UNITED KINGDOM A gunman killed 16 children and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996, prompting a public campaign that led to Britain adopting some of the strictest gun controls in the world. Within two years, new laws effectively banned civilians from owning handguns. The United Kingdom's rate of gun homicides is 0.04 per 100,000 people, the IHME calculates. NEW ZEALAND After the Christchurch mosques shooting that killed 50 people in March 2019, New Zealand's prime minister banned the sale of assault weapons within days. Parliament later voted to bar the circulation and use of most semi-automatic firearms, parts that convert firearms into semi-automatic firearms, magazines over a certain capacity, and some shotguns. Firearm-related murders were rare in New Zealand and remain so; the country had 12 in 2018 and 11 in 2021.

As our nation reckons with the epidemic of gun violence and as a vast majority of Americans support more restrictions, we can't let our gun laws be limited by Republican obstructionism, the power of the gun lobby, or a handful right-wing justices with whom Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump packed the Supreme Court to further the agenda of right-wing zealots. Congress has a popular mandate to act—and now is the time. We had an assault weapons ban within the past two decades, and Congress must vote to reinstate it immediately. The assault weapons ban was initially supported by bipartisan consensus—and voters of all walks of life agree that AR-15s have no place in civilian life and are not what the framers of the Constitution envisioned in drafting the Bill of Rights. During the Bush presidency, Republicans in control of Congress let it lapse—and the results have been devastating. Massacre after massacre occur because of military-grade assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and the fast and deadly impact of these weapons. Without AR-15s and other assault weapons, the incidence of mass gun violence would drop immediately. Many Republican voters agree with these measures, but Republican elected officials, who are in a ghoulish embrace with the NRA and others in the gun lobby, want to talk about anything other than guns when it comes to gun violence. That's why Republican leaders need to hear loud and clear: Voters expect you to take real action and will respect you for passing an assault weapons ban and other commonsense measures. Please add you name: Congress must reinstate the assault weapons ban immediately. And we'll make sure Democrats know momentum is on their side to push forward, that sensible Republicans see they have the mandate to bring bipartisan support to such a measure, and that the rest of the Republicans know they'll be held accountable for choosing assault weapons over our children and communities.

Think back to when you were 18, 19, even 21, did you have need for a automatic rifle? Or even a handgun? So, why would we sell guns to 18 year olds? With no training, little background info, and zero questioning, we let a child buy weapons that kill. Are you comfortable with this? Please help raise this ridiculous legal age limit to something other than 18.

Gun control bills, such as H.R.8 and H.R.1446 have passed in the House but stalled in the Senate. This is, in large part, due to the NRA investing millions of dollars to influence lawmakers. The NRA non-profit status allows them to increase profits for the gun industry, at the expense of all of our lives. The mounting evidence against them—in terms of how they handle their non-profit funds—only increases every year. The government works for the people, and the IRS can take action to protect the most vulnerable in our society by investigating the NRA for misappropriation of funds.

According to the GVA, the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 213 mass shootings in 2022 thus far. In 2021 there were 692, and in 2020: 610. The US gun industry is making record profits while there are record numbers of mass shootings every year. Their sales of these assault weapons is literally supporting domestic terrorism. Blood is on their hands and they must be stopped and held accountable. Our country is living with the terror of gun violence daily; the gun manufacturers have been better protected than our children! This must stop now.

There’s something deeply troubling when attack after attack on our schools, places of worship, and community institutions simply go on without any government response other than thoughts, prayers, and soundbites on cable tv. While there are differences of opinion on the NRA and the exact current day interpretation of the Second Amendment, we should all be able to agree that it’s inappropriate for the largest gun lobbying organization in the world to host a celebratory convention in the very same state as this week’s mass elementary school shooting. Tell the NRA and Houston First Corporation to cancel the convention.

There’s something deeply troubling when attack after attack on our schools, places of worship, and community institutions simply go on without any government response other than thoughts, prayers, and soundbites on cable tv. A right-wing racist gunned down ten community members in a Buffalo, NY supermarket. The attack on a Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Hills, CA was carried out with two legally purchased guns and bags containing incendiary devices and extra ammunition. And the horrifying attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX killed at least nineteen students and two adults with weapons legally purchased by the teen shooter. The gun homicide rate in the United States is 25 times higher than that of other developed countries. Congress must act to pass meaningful legislation immediately. Our families are under attack, and shouldn’t have to live in constant fear of our safety for one more moment. We cannot let the NRA’s political agenda win out over what we all know is safest for our own families and communities.

There’s something deeply troubling when attack after attack on our schools, places of worship, and community institutions simply go on without any government response beyond thoughts, prayers, and soundbites on cable tv. A right-wing racist gunned down ten community members in a Buffalo, NY supermarket. The attack on a Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Hills, CA was carried out with two legally purchased guns and bags containing incendiary devices and extra ammunition. And the horrifying attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX killed at least nineteen students and two adults with weapons legally purchased by the teen shooter. The gun homicide rate in the United States is 25 times higher than that of other developed countries. Congress must act to pass meaningful legislation immediately. Our families are under attack, and shouldn’t have to live in constant fear of our safety for one more moment. The United States House passed a bill years ago that would require background checks and waiting periods for anyone wanting to buy a gun. These are basic protections we need to start keeping our kids safe, but Republicans in the Senate have blocked it. The bill is up for a vote again in the Senate soon - urge your Senators to pass it - and go even farther to make sure we don’t lose even more elementary school kids.

THE MORAL IMPERATIVE: We are mourning. Children should not be sent to school to die. They deserve to live in a country that is safe, to learn and to grow without the threat of violence in their communities. Hosting the annual meeting of the lobby that has recklessly endangered their lives is a moral affront. THE ASK: We call for a national pledge to boycott the George R. Brown Convention Center and Hilton Americas-Houston Hotel unless the upcoming NRA annual meeting is canceled. We ask that those who sign on exercise our collective power against the assaults and complicity.

How is it that we are in this position again? Mass shooting after mass shooting and now back again at a grade school. The American people should not have to fear for their lives every time they see a movie, go to church, shop for groceries or drop their child off at school. Countries all over the world have taken a stand against gun violence by implementing stricter laws and regulations, resulting in near-immediate results. We demand stricter gun control now. Thoughts and prayers do not cut it anymore.