You are the answer to America's gun violence epidemic

Here's what you can do starting today

You are the answer

You are the answer. You can begin to change our nation’s gun culture and our laws starting today. Now. And here is how you can do it.

Response to a mass shooting in 2013

You can change our gun laws

Join me, your fellow citizens and neighbors in the political fight of our lives. Today.

A year ago, after writing too many columns and drawing too many cartoons about this issue and after wasting years reading, posting, tweeting, or bitching about the issue I chose to join the fight.

Bookmark the effective groups I listed below. Join them. Support them. Now.

Join Everytown

This is the largest non-partisan gun safety group in America fighting for you. Started by Gabby and Mark, both responsible gun-owners, this is the largest, most effective umbrella group you can join:

https://www.everytown.org/join/

Find your local chapter today and plan to attend a meeting:

https://www.everytown.org/

Join Moms Demand Action

Dads are welcome to join, too. Find the local chapters in your state. There’s one here in Tucson. I’ve attended local meetings. This group is an effective political action group. Many of the members are survivors of shootings or are related to shooting victims, or like me, just want to end the madness. Find your local chapter today and plan to attend a meeting. Bookmark this link:

https://momsdemandaction.org/

Join Students Demand Action

If you’re a student sick of the screwed up society you live in join your inspiring and energized peers and change the world starting here:

https://studentsdemandaction.org/

Join the Gun Sense Action Network

Here you can join other activists taking action today:

https://momsdemandaction.org/work/gsan/

Vote

Join the political party calling for common sense gun laws today. Show up at their next gathering and volunteer. I have. Here in Arizona join the army of citizens turning our state purple.

Pima County Democratic Party: https://pimadems.org/

Arizona Democratic Party: https://azdem.org/

Vote smart

Bookmark this Vote Smart link and learn your candidate’s positions on guns. Is your public servant serving the NRA rather than public safety?

https://justfacts.votesmart.org/interest-group/1034/rating/7165

Change our gun culture

There was a time when few Americans had rifles for hunting and a few possessed handguns for self-defense. Today many Americans own combat weapons, accept gun violence as part of daily American life and believe the bullshit about guns promoted by gun manufacturers.

Change this by standing up, speaking out and joining the greatest multi-generational struggle since the Civil Rights Movement, the Choice Movement or the Anti-Smoking crusade.

“GUN VIOLENCE HAPPENS” cannot be our response to the unacceptable.

Be patient. Be strong. Be persistent.

There was a time when smoking was widely accepted and promoted as a healthy habit. In the fifties when cigarettes were proven to be lethal and addictive the tobacco lobby flooded Congress with money, answered facts with lies and stalled life saving regulation for decades. Sound familiar? Lethal product profiteers spending blood money to promote lies and keep profits high? Half a century later tobacco is heavily regulated, taxed and the once omnipresent vending machines are gone and smoking addicts are marginalized, shunned and pitied. After half a century of anti-smoking messaging our cultural attitudes about smoking changed and millions of lives have been saved.

Show the impact

We cannot accept our collective lack of empathy for the victims of gun violence whose lives are blown away by madness. Not even the death of 26 children at an elementary school could thaw our frozen hearts. For our attitude towards the victims of gun violence to change we must stop protecting the public from graphic images of the carnage.

More guns or more Violence Intervention Programs?

The overwhelming majority of Americans purchase their weapons for “self-defense”. Every mass shooting and every talk of regulation is used by the profiteers to spikes sales.

Answer fear with courage. Become an evangelist for non-violence. We can no longer reward those who would sell fear and celebrate violence as the American answer to everything.

At a range in 2008

Familiarize yourself with firearms

Learn firearm safety. Learn how to secure a firearm. Growing up in a family with veterans and hunters I am familiar with firearms and responsible firearm owners. I do not own a gun by choice.

You want a long rifle for hunting or a small handgun for self-defense? Get background checked, trained and licensed, safety locks, a gun safe and your weapon registered.

Arm yourself with the facts

This is my go-to reliable source for all the evidence-based arguments you will ever need:

https://everytownresearch.org

Talk to your gun owning friends

Most gun owners support background checks and other practical steps yet they are reluctant to share their views. They understandably underestimate how many other gun owners share their views. They’re reluctant to let others know that they own guns because they feel unfairly blamed for gun violence. Encourage responsible gun owners who publicly express their support for these policies.

January 8th, 2011

I arrived at the scene of the horrific Safeway shooting as my friend Gabby was being helicoptered to care and the dead were still covered with tarps.

Nothing prepared me for the carnage.

I have ridden with law-enforcement, seen morgues and lost friends and acquaintances to gun violence. And like too many Americans I’ve gotten a text from a loved one hiding under a desk at a school during an active shooter lock down. She survived. And I’ve seen my children grow up doing shooter drills at their schools.

A few weeks after January 8th I met with my friend, Tucson Police Department Assistant Chief Kathleen Robinson, at the Beyond Bread across the parking lot from site of the mass shooting to ask for insight.

At one point Robinson patted her holstered revolver and asked me “Why should my officers be outgunned by the citizenry they’ve sworn to protect?”

Our peace officers should not be outgunned by the citizenry they risk their lives to protect. Support banning all combat style weapons and monster clips in the hands of civilians. The so-called freedom to own these monstrosities is not worth the life of one more school child.

When will it ever end?

The madness will one day end when you take the one action that will make a genuine difference.

I’ve been drawing cartoons and writing about the gun issue for 40 years and I have learned only one action will actually end America’s descent into mass shooting madness.

Only one.

The action you take today. Join us in our fight for sane gun laws. Join us in our fight to stop the carnage.

Join us.

Doings about town

Sunday, April 16th. I’ll be speaking at the Loft on at this noteworthy gathering. For tickets:

https://loftcinema.org/film/before-i-die-festival/

I’ll see you there!

Sunday, April 23rd. If you love mariachi get your tickets to see 12 amazing mariachi groups perform together on one night at historic El Casino Ballroom. For tickets:

https://freshtix.com/events/drvconcert/

I’ll see you there!