burst into his classroom and shot him four times. thanks to both of you for being here. shannon, i want to start with you. the headline really is the $50 million that michael bloomberg is pouring in, but what is actually different about what you re planning to do on the ground? this is a huge game changer. for the first time, we have a grassroots effort. we can get people to work online, we can get them to work offline, and that has never existed in the history of america. for 30 years the gun lobby had time to build up their own grassroots network and now we can go toe to toe with them in the states. collin, michael bloomberg told the new york times the pro gun reform side needs to learn from the nra, they say we don t care. we re going to go after you. if you don t vote with us, we re going to go after your kids and your grandkids and your great grandkids and never going to stop. we re going to make them afraid of us. what can you learn from this
we re supporting good bills and we are making a difference. we ve seen many bills shot down this year that should have past or would have passed in the past and we re working to get good legislation that we can support. state-level bills, as well, stand your ground in florida. child access prevention, suicide prevention, stand your ground, domestic violence prevention. all laws americans can get behind. collin, when you re looking at the support you re looking to garner, do you have support among, let s say, gun owners, nra members, republicans, can you point to something outside of the traditional base of people who are advocates of gun reform? certainly. check out a poll of nra members and 75% support background checks. i know you mentioned the vote last year in the u.s. senate, yes, it didn t pass the filibuster, but we had a majority. we had 55 senators vote for that. that s a majority. today in the house, that same
money to waste, but frankly, i think that he is going to find out why his side keeps losing and how do you get the passion on your side, because you know better than anybody the passion on the side of the advocates for guns? all right. we seem to have lost contact and i want to than collin goddard, and i want to bring in our panel. we have malika henderson, a report reporter for the washington post, and josh barro of the new york times . and if you look at what did not get done on the hill, the list is on and on and on and although they were putting a ban on the plastic firearms, they were not going the ban the methodal parts to get through, and that would allow it to get through a medal detector at an airport. and $50 million effort, and michael bloomberg has had
with one group, the nra, always the loudest voice in the room, especially on capitol hill. simple, more guns, not fewer guns, and more places where you can carry and display them. their leaders frequently appeal to the paranoia on the far right that this president and his allies are going to try and take people s guns away. even with the full force of the white house behind it, an effort last year to close a simple loophole on background checks failed. well, today, advocates of stronger gun safety measures got what could potentially be a major boost. former new york city mayor michael bloomberg pledged to spend at least $50 million this year alone on gun safety reform. unlike his previous efforts on the issue, the money isn t going towards tv ads, but rather into building up field operations on the grassroots level. in doing so, it s being set up as a direct challenge to the nra, which spends about $20 million on political activities each year, according to the new york time
not receiving a lot of attention but could have profound impact is an expansion of the state s stand your ground law. according to one interest campaigning against this legislation, mayors against illegal guns coalition, after georgia passed the current stand your ground law, the number of justify ibl homicides increased by 83%. the presence of more guns could ultimately drive violent crime down. the new expansion would make defense of yourself or others an absolute defense to any criminal gun charge, even if that gun was obtained illegally. the bill could pass next week when the 24 session will end. we re joined by collin goddard. colin himself was shot four times and critically wounded during the virginia tech massacre and uses that xperngs as an advocate to try to prevent gun violence. thanks for joining us. thanks for having me.