The rise of candidates centering gun violence is a result of the growing prevention movement across the US, which has become something of 👉a pipeline for new candidates running for office.

#Maxwell #Frost, the nation’s first gen Z US representative, started off as a volunteer before becoming organizing director for
"March for Our Lives",
the gun-safety group founded by survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in #Parkland, Florida.

Georgia representative #Lucy #McBath, whose son Jordan Davis was shot and killed in 2012,
and Virginia governor-elect #Abigail #Spanberger were both volunteers with the gun-safety group
"Moms Demand Action" before they ran for office.

And #Cameron #Kasky, a survivor of the Parkland shooting who helped to organize the March for Our Lives student protests, recently announced his campaign to represent Manhattan, New York, in Congress.

“I see myself as a small part of a bigger movement. It’s the reason I got into politics,” Frost said.

“I was 15 when #Sandy #Hook happened and that’s what pushed me to get involved in organizing and it’s remained a big piece of my organizing.”

Today, calling out gun-rights lobbyists and groups like the National Rifle Association ( #NRA ) is common among Democrats vying for political office.

But less than 15 years ago, many moderate Democrats held A ratings from the NRA and the subject of regulating guns was a third rail that could spell an end to political aspirations,
said #Shannon #Watts, a violence-prevention activist and founder of Moms Demand Action.

“It was gradual and not linear,”
she said of the change that’s happened.
“We saw that our volunteers were running for office and thought it was common sense that someone who was learning how to shape legislation would want to take the next step to make the legislation as an elected official.”

Watts marks the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school, in which a gunman
killed 20 children and six adults,
and the subsequent failure of Congress to pass gun-safety policies, as a watershed moment that pushed formerly gun-friendly Democrats like former West Virginia senator #JoeManchin, Minnesota governor #Tim #Walz and former Arizona representative #Ann #Kirkpatrick to risk their A rating from the NRA to call for restrictions on gun-#magazine #capacities and #assault #weapons.
⭐️Now, having an F rating from the group is a point of pride.

“After Parkland, zero Democratic members of Congress had an A rating and were proud about it.
That’s a seismic shift,”
Watts added.
“I think it’s proof positive that playing the long game works.
Lucy [McBath] ran for a seat held by Republicans and she ran on the issue of gun safety.
It shattered a lot of misperceptions and fears about being gun safety-forward.

The issue of gun violence has also activated newcomers to politics.
#Shaundelle #Brooks’s son, Akilah Dasilva, was one of four people killed in a mass shooting at a #Nashville Waffle House in 2018.

Five years later, in 2023, another son, who survived the Waffle House shooting, was shot and injured while leaving a Nashville music venue.

After her son’s death, Brooks said she regularly would go to the statehouse to advocate for gun laws that she feels could have prevented the death of her son and so many others.

After years of her pleas falling on unreceptive ears, she decided to run for office.

“There was a time where people were scared to even mention it while they were running.

And I remember not voting for certain people because of that.

So I am grateful that people are standing up, speaking out and being brave about it,” Brooks said.

“Coming up here for seven years and having them just ignoring me,
testifying and then being told that if my son had a gun that would have saved his life,
showed me that I needed to do more than what I was doing.”

The personal experiences of loss unite people like Brooks and Pearson with the scores of Americans who are part of what gun-violence victims and survivors describe as a club that no one wants to be a part of.

“When people see you’re personally impacted,
they feel that you’re more credible to talk about this kind of stuff.

They know it’s not a political thing for us,” she said
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/02/gun-safety-law-us-legislation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

_The Evening Post_, 22 May 1925:
PERSONAL MATTERS
…
The death occurred at Helensville last evening of Mr. Samuel #Kirkpatrick, founder and managing director of the well-known firm of Kirkpatrick and Co. Deceased took a prominent part in sport in the early days. At the time of his death (reports the Press Association) he was Deputy-Grand Master of the English Masonic Lodge, Westland and Nelson. Mr. Kirkpatrick was a native of Newry, County Down, Ireland, and as a young man emigrated to America, where he first entered upon his long and successful business career, at Philadelphia, and later at Pittsburg. In 1876 he went to California, where he engaged in the fruit-preserving industry, and acquired the extensive practical knowledge which enabled him to found and carry through to success the well-known Nelson company. He came to New Zealand in 1879, landing in Auckland. For a time he resided at Dunedin, before leaving for England to bring to New Zealand a complete plant for #canning purposes, and to commence operations at #Nelson.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19250522.2.101
Biography in DNZB https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2k11/kirkpatrick-samuel

#OnThisDay #OTD #PapersPast #Businessmen #FoodProcessing #NewZealand

In #Islam, we speak of the 'fitrah' -- God's Truth, imprinted on each of our souls at their creation. This is what we have been taught to suppress--because #capitalism that stops evaluating performance at the organizational level (what #Kirkpatrick termed 'Level 4') rather than that of our shared society (what Kaufman defined as 'Level 5,' or "#Mega") demands ever-increasing economic output. If Return on Investment (#ROI) is god--and God is exiled--then the only way to KEEP improving is to keep increasing that numerator...forever!

To keep sacrificing our humanity--our Divine Purpose--for ITS purpose. Our akhirah for this dunya.

And that's a #FalseProfit.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/husseinhallak_you-used-to-know-what-meaning-felt-like-activity-7322027954631311361-wTSU

‘The #rats are … all high,’ #NOPD chief says of vermin-infested #HQ, #evidence room

> “The rats are eating our #marijuana,” #Kirkpatrick said. “They’re all #high.”

Source: https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/the-rats-are--all-high-nopd-chief-says-of-vermin-infested-hq-evidence-warehouse-new-orleans/article_88bbef7c-dfc0-11ee-a110-dfcbe69db780.html

#police #cop #problem #disaster #plague #news #usa #rat

Well, this is all going to be very interesting, we got conflicting parties here!

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/28/pentagon-ufo-boss-congress-hearing-00108822

#UAP #uaps #ufos #ufo #grusch #kirkpatrick #disclosure