Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt Welcoming the March For Our Lives:

The National Organization for Women welcomes the students from Parkland, Florida–and around the country–who are coming to Washington, DC for the March For Our Lives.

NOW applauds your focus on grassroots activism, voter registration and getting out the vote to elect lawmakers who will support common-sense policies to end gun violence. We know that mass actions can move public policy, and lead to new laws that address old wrongs.

About 4.5 million living American women have been threatened with a gun by an intimate partner. Further 55 percent of the nearly 1,700 women killed in 2015, single victim, single offender incidents were killed with a gun.It has long been noted that numerous instances of mass shooting involve a perpetrator’s history of domestic violence. NOW is working to elect candidates who support stricter gun controls and will stand up to the NRA.

NOW joins you in “calling BS” on the gun culture, and its enablers. Welcome to Washington. You are marching into history.

Contact

Emily Imhoff, press@now.org, 951-547-1241