Indivisible Yolo Podcast – Amanda Wilcox of the Brady Campaign

This week Amanda Wilcox sat down with our podcast hosts to chat about the Brady Campaign, their legislative agenda – both in California and nationally – and to discuss the impact of the Parkland shooting on legislation and our national conversation about gun violence and sensible gun laws.

Amanda mentioned a wealth of resources for involvement, including a number of bills in Congress. Brady’s three main legislative goals, nationally, are to ban assault weapons, expand background checks, and to expand funding for gun violence restraining orders, which would allow courts to strip gun ownership from persons deemed dangerous to themselves and others by those who know them personally. Currently, California maintains a host of laws that achieve those ends, and has seen a 53% drop in gun deaths – homicide and suicide – since their implementation.

Nationally, there are bills in both the House and Senate, they are:

H.R. 4240 and S. 2009 would both expand background checks.

H.R. 5087 and S. 2095 would ban assault weapons.

H.R. 2598 and S. 1212 would expand funding for the gun violence restraining orders, or ‘extreme risk protection order,’ as it’s called here in California.

Representative Garamendi is a cosponsor of all three House bills, which certainly merits a thank you: (530) 753-5301.

Senator Feinstein is a cosponsor of the first, and authored the latter two, which definitely deserves a thanks: (415) 393-0707.

Senator Harris has cosponsored the first two, but not S. 1212. It’d be worth asking her why: (916) 448-2787.

Currently, all bills are in their respective Judiciary Committees. Both of our Senators serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee, so while you’re on the phone, consider urging them to get these bills discharged to the Senate floor.

In California, Brady has two main goals: raise the minimum age for long gun purchase to 21, with AB3, and improve awareness of the Gun Violence Restraining Order Law, which was passed in 2014. The Law would allow courts to prohibit someone from owning a firearm or ammunition – removing what they already own and preventing them from buying more. Family members, domestic partners, or long-term roommates can ask the courts to issue a prohibition if they feel someone may be a danger to themselves or others.

To learn more about the Gun Violence Restraining Order Law, and to get involved, head to http://speakforsafety.org, or text ‘movement’ to 877877.

To get involved with the Brady Campaign here in the Sacramento Valley, check out the Brady Campaign website, or send an email to BradySacramento@gmail dot com to attend their next meeting on March 17th!

In addition, don’t forget to attend the March for Our Lives in Sacramento on March 24th. Indivisible Yolo will be carpooling and bussing over, so join us!