Shannon Watts Speaks About Her Fight Against Gun Violence

You’re not supposed to meet your heroes, or you’ll be sorely disappointed. That’s what they say. I don’t know this ‘they’ is, but I met my hero standing in front of a podium in Centre Club, a guest of the professional women’s organization, Athena Society, on March 5, 2020.

A hush fell over the crowd as this poised, polished activist took her place in front of the microphone.

Athena Society members and guests from Brady United, Hillsborough County Commission on the Status of Women, Hillsborough County Safe and Sound, Hispanic Professional Business Women, League of Women Voters of Hillsborough County, March for our Lives, Moms Demand Action National, Moms Demand Action – Tampa, Organize Florida, Pasco County Commission on the Status of Women, and We are The Students, waited with bated breath for her to speak.

This was the incredible woman behind Mom’s Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

Eight years ago, Shannon Watts, had no idea she would helm the largest grassroots organization for gun violence prevention with chapters in all 50 states with over 6 million supporters and growing exponentially.

She couldn’t know that she would lead this female army, and she and those determined women would take on the gun lobby, effect positive change culturally, legislatively, and electorally at the local, state, and national levels. She would be the thorn in the NRA’s side and receive death and sexual violence threats because of steadfast, unwavering commitment to starting this revolution.

In 2012, this stay-at-home mother of 5 was folding clothing, watching the news on television. A breaking news report about an active shooter shook her to the core. Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza got on campus and shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children between six and seven years old, and six adult staff members in Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT.

Pundits and politicians were on television saying that the solution to gun violence was more guns.

“I knew nothing about gun laws, but I knew that was wrong,” she said. “I knew our nation was broken.”

Shannon turned to social media to find a gun violence prevention organization like Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Men ran most of the organizations she found.

“I decided that I wanted to be part of a bad-ass army of women. That’s how things get done in this country. It’s women and moms on the frontlines.”

Shannon put up a Facebook page to start a conversation, and accidentally birthed a movement.

Women were googling her contact information and ask her, “how can I do this where I live? How can I help you?”

What she thought would be an online conversation very quickly became the most significant grassroots movement in the country.

“I was building the plane while I was flying it,” she told the audience. “I didn’t know anything about organizing, and yet I knew that I had to do something. I made a bet that 80 million women, regardless of their political party, would want to do something about this issue. If I had waited until I knew everything, I still wouldn’t have started Moms Demand Action. I was drinking from a fire hose as were all our volunteers in those first several years. We built the plane together, and we flew it.”

***

Today school shooting drills for children as young as preschool are as commonplace as high school fire drills. A second-grader told his mom, a member of Moms Demand Action Orlando, matter-of-factly on their way to school, “I just hope I don’t get shot today.” It with without fear, rather as blase as “I hope it doesn’t rain today.”

Another guest at the table mentioned her granddaughter was afraid to wear the light-up shoes, so “the shooter can’t see them and shoot me.”

This young generation and the millennials before have never lived in a world without school shootings.

Shannon and her army are their voice, and to this vast army, there’s no such thing as losing. Despite in the early days of working for a background check loophole bill that was never passed, it was chalked up as “failure as feedback” or “failing forward.”

Even though Congress didn’t act, the organization reached out to the state houses and boardrooms where they lived. Many Governors did what Congress did not.

“Lobbyists are terrified of these women who show up in their red shirts. These are moms with an incredible amount of spending power.”

Shannon relayed a story of Starbucks not allowing smoking or vaping near their place of business, yet still allowed open carry of weapons in their store.

Members of Moms Demand Action posted pictures of themselves enjoying coffee at competitor locations and made images of open carry in Starbucks go viral. The more they pushed on Starbucks, the more gun extremists pushed back by visiting the establishment armed to the teeth, even in Newtown, CT. Three months after this extreme pressure from Moms Demand Action, Starbucks, one of the largest companies in the world, caved, and years later, 40 different grocery stores, CVS, Walmart, followed suit.

“As a mom, I’m much more afraid of secondhand bullets than secondhand smoke,” Shannon quipped. “We have replicated that success over and over again. It makes a difference because it shows lawmakers what to do.”

In the last seven years, Moms Demand Action help pass gun background check in 21 states.

“We're going to do it in Florida,” she promised the audience.

After the Parkland school shooting in 2018, Moms Demand Action helped pass the Red Flag Law, allowing families and police to get a temporary restraining order to remove guns from someone who could be a danger to himself or others. They also passed laws in 28 states that disarmed domestic abusers.

Moms Demand Action is going state by state for The Red Flag Law until approved on a federal level.

"When lawmakers close the door, Moms Demand Action volunteers go in a window."

In 2019, Moms Demand Action stopped 270 gun lobby-backed bills with a 90% track record.

When the Guardian program was expanded to allow educators to have guns in the classroom, despite objections from police officers, parents, and teachers, Moms Demand Action went school district by school district.

"Because of our volunteers, 94% of kids in Florida go to school in places that don't allow the teacher to be armed."

Shannon said that this is not a polarizing issue, and is about some lawmakers still beholden to a wealthy, powerful gun lobby.

"The truth is the NRA is weaker, and we are stronger than we've ever been. The NRA is beatable. Gun violence is not inevitable, and we can tackle this together if we all get off the sidelines. We are not about taking away gun owners’ rights; we’re about responsible gun ownership. We are showing lawmakers over and over again that an A rating from the NRA is no longer a badge of honor. It is a scarlet letter," she said. "We're showing them if they do the right thing, we'll have their backs. If they do the wrong thing, we'll have their jobs."

Thank you, Shannon Watts, for living up to my expectations and then some.

To volunteer as a mom or a student, text READY to 64433 or text STUDENTS to 64433 to get involved. To check out upcoming candidates' stance on gun safety, visit www.gunsensevoter.org. To learn more about Moms Demand Action, Tampa, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/MomsDemandActionTampaBay or https://momsdemandaction.org.