#NoNRAMoney URGES CANDIDATES AND LAWMAKERS TO SIGN PLEDGE,
REJECT NRA DONATIONS, WILL RELEASE LIST PUBLICLY ON MARCH 5
February 26, 2018 -- The NoNRAMoney national campaign, demanding that politicians reject funding from the National Rifle Association (NRA), has set a deadline of March 2, 2018 for candidates and politicians to join the growing list of legislators who have committed to reject any contributions from the NRA. The deadline marks 17 days since the Parkland shooting, one for each of the students and adults killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The sign up will remain open and new signers will be added but only those who join by March 2nd will be sent out. After that, additions will be added online for the public to review.
The campaign was launched within days of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida and has gained momentum online and across the country. A growing roster of businesses, politicians and the public increasingly are rejecting the NRA and advocating for sensible gun control legislation at state and national levels. Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi, joined the pledge and urged her colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join her.
“We are at a tipping point because of your activism to end gun violence in our schools, churches and communities,” Pelosi said in remarks to the California Democratic Conventionon Sunday. “The Stoneman Douglas students of Florida are holding public officials accountable to save lives. Let us salute those students for their courage and clarity; and let us salute them by pledging not to take any NRA money!” Nadine Smith, Executive Director of Equality Florida and one of the campaign co-founders, said: “The NRA doesn’t speak for the majority of voters, not even the majority of gun owners who overwhelmingly believe we need common sense gun laws not the normalization of mass shootings. More than 150 politicians have taken the pledge and thousands of volunteers are demanding that candidates and lawmakers refuse NRA funding or lose our votes. We are breaking their extremist stranglehold so that rational debate can lead to sensible gun policy.”
Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL, said: “It is time for every politician to take action against the epidemic of mass shootings that have become a frighteningly common feature of American life. The NRA has turned our country into a war zone and Americans are done dying for you. Our children are done being your sacrifices. I lost two friends in the Pulse shooting and I will do anything to support the amazing young people of Parkland who are survivors and advocates for the 17 fellow students and teachers they lost. The have become an unstoppable force and, I pray, the catalyst for the real reform we desperately need to keep all of us safe.”
Wolf's appearance at the recent rally in Tallahassee, FL organized by Parkland survivors is here: https://twitter.com/buzzfeednews/status/966421783883612160
Dozens of major companies have severed financial ties with the NRA and GOP leaders, a demographic traditionally most fearful of crossing the gun lobby is beginning put distance between themselves and NRA lobbyists.
Two prominent GOP billionaire donors announced they would no longer fund Republicans who stand in the why of gun reform. Senator Marco Rubio, grilled by Marjory Stoneman Douglas students on CNN, said he was open to restricting magazine capacity. FL GOP Congressman Brian Mast became the first in his party to embrace an assault weapons ban, a break with the NRA that is almost unheard of.
But promises following tragedy have proved hollow before and NoNRAMoney was created to ensure consequences at the ballot box for candidates who pledge their allegiance to NRA extremism.