By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
Five of the country’s top anti-gun groups are celebrating the launch of a new organization comprised of state lawmakers, which will focus on changing state gun laws.
Legislators for Safer Communities consists of 171 state lawmakers from 43 states, and will serve as a “hub for collaboration, partnership, shared resources, strategy, research, and peer networking,” according to an Everytown for Gun Safety press release.
“The coalition will work in partnership with Brady, Community Justice, Everytown, GIFFORDS, and March For Our Lives,” the release states. All five groups issued statements heralding the new organization.
Everytown, Giffords and others say the new group will circumvent the “congressional stalemate” on gun-control legislation at the national level and will focus on changing state laws, where they have seen recent successes.
“When Congress is gridlocked, we have watched state legislators across the country who understand that gun violence is preventable, work relentlessly in their statehouses to keep their communities safe from gun violence,” Tanya Schardt, Brady’s senior counsel and senior policy director, said in a press release. “Now, with the formation of this new coalition, their efforts have been united as they pursue their shared goals: to save lives through common sense and evidence-based policies. Brady applauds these champions and supports their efforts.”
While the Legislators for Safer Communities claims to be independent and nonpartisan, all of the lawmakers named on its scant one-page website are Democrats. The site offers no information about the group’s funding, but suggests it has “partnered” with the five national anti-gun groups.
The group’s website has no phone number, only a digital contact form. The group did not return emails submitted through the contact portal seeking additional information about its funding and comments for this story. It is not listed on GuideStar or other charity navigators.
Legislators of Safer Communities parrots most of the talking points used by its five national partners. The group claims “gun violence is a public health issue with complex roots in systemic inequalities.” Its solutions, the website states, will focus on “equity and justice.”
Experienced gun controllers
Delaware Senate Majority Whip Tizzy Lockman is one of the six co-chairs and like her co-chairs is notoriously anti-gun.
Lockman introduced a permit-to-purchase bill, which was signed into law four months ago. Her bill requires Delawareans seeking to purchase a handgun to pass a state-approved training course, submit fingerprints and undergo a background check. It bars private sales to anyone without the state-issued permit.
Co-Chair Representative Bob Morgan, a Democrat from Illinois, chairs his state’s House Firearm Safety and Reform Working Group, which “recommends legislation to crack down on gun violence in Illinois.”
“Under Rep. Morgan’s leadership, the group will hear from gun violence experts and stakeholders, build consensus, and advance impactful reforms,” Morgan’s website states.
Co-chair Assembly Majority Floor Leader Sandra Jauregui of Nevada, introduced bills that banned guns at polling places, adopted ATF’s definition of frames and receivers and prohibited anyone under 21 from owning or possessing “certain assault weapons.”
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