FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, August 5, 2019
Media Contacts
Bruna Bouhid-Sollod | [email protected] | 202.850.0812
Statement by Progressive Groups on Shootings
Coalition calls for Congress to stop white nationalism and bring justice by ending gun violence once and for all
Washington, D.C. - This weekend, deadly attacks - the 251th mass shooting this year, took the lives of 29 people. According to reports, the El Paso shooter published a manifesto drawing on rhetoric from President Trump and responding to the white nationalist conspiracy known as the "great replacement" theory, which believes that white, Christian Europeans are being deliberately outbred and replaced by immigrants, with the help of Jewish people.
Similar manifestos were published by the alleged Christchurch shooter, who killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in March, and the gunman who opened fire and killed one person at a synagogue in Poway, California, in April. White nationalism also fueled the violence at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and the racist killings in a Kroger parking lot in Kentucky this past fall.
United We Dream, Community Justice Action Fund, Newtown Action Alliance, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Women’s March, MoveOn, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Working Families and Center for Popular Democracy Action, organizations representing millions of members across the country, released the following statement:
“Our hearts mourn those murdered and we send our love to all people impacted by these attacks. The communities in El Paso and Dayton, and all those who have survived gun violence and white supremacist violence, are facing unimaginable pain and we stand with you as we grieve and heal.
Our communities are paying the price for the government’s inaction to end gun violence and address deep racial inequality. Immigrants, Black, Brown, Indigenous, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, queer, students and low-income communities everywhere are suffering the consequences, and we call on everyone running for president in 2020 to publish plans on how they will end gun violence, stop the spread of white nationalism and bring justice to communities directly impacted.
Despite the President's response this morning condemning racism, bigotry and white supremacy -- we know his past actions speak louder than his words. His high praise for the NRA and closeness with gun lobbyists has kept him from taking any action around gun violence, further enabling white supremacists to take countless lives. We will not stand for it.
Every legislator who openly speaks about an invasion, demonizes immigrants and people of color, and calls for mass expulsions through deportation, is enabling a centuries old ideology in this country, and as a result, a mass radicalization of white individuals that are now emboldened to commit murder. Every member of Congress -- whether Republican or Democrat -- refusing to consider legislation to confront the epidemic of gun violence is enabling these massacres to continue.
This white nationalist agenda is used by the deportation force of ICE and CBP to lock up Black and brown immigrants across the country. It lives through the courts and police departments, that lock up and kill Black and brown bodies. We need more than thoughts and prayers - we need change now.
To stop this once and for all, government leaders must enact the structural change necessary to stop white supremacists and white nationalists in their tracks. We demand bold leadership in all levels of government that brings justice for our communities.
The times we are living in are terrifying. They are terrifying by design. So we will dig deep because the power to resist is inside each of us and the power to win is in our solidarity. We recommit ourselves to one another and we recommit to dream beyond this moment.”
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