We’re so excited to announce a powerful new relationship between the Law Center and one of our strongest allies in the battle for smart gun laws, Americans for Responsible Solutions. We’re forming a new force for gun safety legislation, education, research, and advocacy that stretches from coast to coast, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to forge ahead in the fight against gun violence under the tireless leadership of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Captain Mark Kelly.
The merger between the Law Center and ARS builds on years of collaboration between the two organizations—our legal, policy, and advocacy teams have worked in concert to advance the smart gun laws that save lives and keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. Some examples of our coordinated efforts include:
- Working with the Obama administration on a bold series of executive actions to narrow loopholes and improve the background checks system.
- Achieving lifesaving legislative victories in statehouses across the country. Together, our teams advocated successfully for Delaware’s new procedures to protect victims of domestic violence from abusers and saved an essential permit-to-purchase law in Iowa, among many others.
- Collaborating on a series of Commonsense Solutions toolkits that have provided lawmakers with actionable steps they can take to secure communities against the threat of gun violence. We’ve addressed how to reduce gun deaths associated with mental illness and domestic violence, how to expand lifesaving background checks to unlicensed gun sales, and how to keep kids safe from unintentional shootings—with more to come.
Joining forces with ARS is the natural evolution of so many successful joint initiatives, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have the opportunity for greater impact. Effective immediately, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence will now operate as part of the Americans for Responsible Solutions Foundation, the 501(c)(3) arm of Americans for Responsible Solutions.
“By teaming up with Americans for Responsible Solutions, our legal experts will now have a much larger platform to help bring key policies like universal background checks to more states,” said Robyn Thomas, the Law Center’s executive director. “Since ARS’s founding in 2013, our movement has experienced unprecedented momentum, with 125 new smart gun laws passed in 41 states. America is taking action to stand up to the gun lobby and save lives from gun violence, in large part due to the commitment of Gabby, Mark, and the rest of the ARS team, and we couldn’t be more excited to join forces with them.”
By uniting our unmatched legal acumen with ARS’s nationwide legislative, communications, and advocacy expertise, both organizations will be better able to advance smart gun laws that the vast majority of Americans support, and continue to drive the national conversation forward when it comes to saving lives from an epidemic that kills over 30,000 each year and leaves more than 80,000 injured.
Learn more about Americans for Responsible Solutions at responsiblesolutions.org