{"id":43421,"date":"2019-08-05T23:40:15","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T03:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=43421"},"modified":"2019-08-05T23:40:15","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T03:40:15","slug":"take-action-on-gun-terrorism-your-first-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/take-action-on-gun-terrorism-your-first-step\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Action on Gun Terrorism: Your First Step"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2019\/08\/04\/gilroy-el-paso-dayton-become-latest-killing-grounds-assault-rifles\/1914804001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the three most recent mass shootings by white male supremacist terrorists<\/a>, we are all morally obligated to take action. If you don&#8217;t know what action to take &#8230; no problem! I&#8217;ll give you five assignments this week.<\/p>\n<p>Start by taking a few minutes tomorrow morning to call your senators. Why? Because the House has already passed a bill requiring universal background checks for gun purchases, but Mitch McConnell refuses to bring it up for a vote in the Senate, instead offering his worthless \u201cthoughts and prayers\u201d to victims of gun violence.\u00a0 Call! Tell your senators what you think of what&#8217;s happening in this country. Tell your personal stories. Demand they cut short their recess and return to D.C. to put pressure on McConnell to hold the vote.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.senate.gov\/general\/contact_information\/senators_cfm.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Find your senators&#8217; phone numbers here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The offices of all your elected officials track the number of calls they get from constituents and what topics those calls are about. Never underestimate the impact of a phone call! Also, phone calls are preferable to email because they tie up staffers&#8217; time. Disrupting business-as-usual is the way to go.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re truly phone-shy or can&#8217;t call during business hours, use <a href=\"https:\/\/resist.bot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Resistbot<\/a> instead of email &#8212; I&#8217;ve gotten better results from this tool. Just text the word RESIST to 50409 and follow the instructions. It&#8217;s free, it&#8217;s available nationwide, and you can use it 24\/7. Once you get it set up the first time, you can send a message to both senators in two minutes at any time of the day or night. Do it while you&#8217;re at a bar, on the train, walking the dog, or waiting for water to boil. It&#8217;s that easy.<\/p>\n<p>Let me know in the comments when you&#8217;ve done your task so I can applaud you. (For my activist readers in Canada, I recommend sending <a href=\"https:\/\/indivisible.org\/resource\/write-letters-editor-really-get-attention\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a letter to the editor of a U.S. newspaper<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the three most recent mass shootings by white male supremacist terrorists, we are all morally obligated to take action. If you don&#8217;t know what action to take &#8230; no problem! I&#8217;ll give you five assignments this week. Start by taking a few minutes tomorrow morning to call your senators. Why? Because the House has&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/take-action-on-gun-terrorism-your-first-step\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2092,49,143,1409],"tags":[1434],"class_list":{"0":"post-43421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-activism","7":"category-in-the-news","8":"category-politics","9":"category-racism-in-the-news","10":"tag-gun-control-now","11":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43421"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43423,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43421\/revisions\/43423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}