NoRA: activists and stars launch gun control campaign to battle NRA
No Rifle Association Initiative unites Parkland students and celebrities including Alec Baldwin and Amy Schumer
NoRA
A group of activists and celebrities have launched a new campaign targeting the National Rifle Association.
The No Rifle Association Initiative, backed by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida – where 17 people were shot dead in February – and celebrities including Alec Baldwin, Amy Schumer and Jimmy Kimmel, aims to “shine a bright light on the bloody hands of the NRA and the politicians they purchase”.
The move comes as thousands of students walked out of classes on Friday, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, calling for gun control reform.
NoRA says it will mobilise people to vote out NRA-funded candidates in the November midterm elections. Its website offers information on registering to vote and contacting lawmakers.
“We’re going to plaster the nation with the faces of those who take NRA blood money with posters created by iconic artist Bradley Theodore,” a statement said. “We’re going to show up at the NRA convention in Dallas and make them wish they stayed home. We might just sue the pants off the NRA.”
Florida survivor calls for boycott
The activist David Hogg, one of the survivors of the Parkland shooting, has called for a boycott of the investment companies BlackRock and Vanguard.
The companies are “two of the biggest investors in gun manufacturers; if you use them, feel free to let them know”, Hogg – who is writing a book, #NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the Line – wrote on Twitter, posting the hashtags #boycottvanguard and #boycottblackrock.
According to CNN, BlackRock is the top shareholder in the gun manufacturers Sturm Ruger and American Outdoor Brands, and the second-largest shareholder in Vista Outdoor (VSTO). Vanguard is the second-biggest Sturm Ruger shareholder.
A spokeswoman for Vanguard said the company was meeting with gun manufacturers and distributors to discuss how it could “mitigate the risks that their products pose and how they plan to help prevent such tragedies from happening again”. Hmm.
What we’re reading
The arrest of two black men – who were sitting in a Starbucks waiting for a meeting – shows the “profiling and discrimination black people experience on a daily basis”, writes Rochaun Meadows-Fernandez here at the Guardian. “Change cannot happen until white people are as outraged at witnessing our mistreatment as we are at receiving it.”
