\n<\/p>\n
Washington (AFP) \u2013 Having traveled across the United States for a decade to campaign against the ceaseless round of shootings that have claimed thousands of lives, Shannon Watts believes she has heard a very clear message.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmericans want the gun violence to stop,\u201d she said during a recent stop in Washington.<\/p>\n
One of the country\u2019s most prominent faces in the fight against gun violence, Watts met with AFP journalists in her hotel room in an interview sandwiched between a live Instagram talk and lunch with Hillary Clinton and other influential women.<\/p>\n
While the battle to reduce firearm deaths has exacted a price \u2014 amid furious responses from some far-right gun lovers she often travels under an alias \u2014 this 52-year-old mother of five remains undeterred.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And after devoting countless hours to her cause, she insists that \u201cwe are winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t always feel that way. On Saturday, a man armed with an assault rifle killed eight people in a shopping center near Dallas, Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not numb,\u201d Watts tweeted afterwards. \u201cWe are traumatized.\u201d<\/p>\n
By now, she told AFP, even Republicans, traditionally fierce defenders of the right to own arms, \u201care scared their kids aren\u2019t safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was that sort of fear that prompted Watts to found Moms Demand Action. The galvanizing spark was the Sandy Hook massacre of December 14, 2012 \u2014 when a disturbed young man opened fire in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 26 people, including 20 children aged six and seven.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That night, Watts said, she went to bed \u201cdevastated,\u201d in tears but also \u201cfull of rage\u201d and overwhelmed by \u201cthis feeling of needing to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next morning she went to work. Scouring the internet, she found a few anti-gun violence groups, but all were headed by men. That wasn\u2019t for her: \u201cI wanted to be part of a badass army of women,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
So she set out to create one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From humble beginnings as a small Facebook group, Moms Demand Action has grown into a powerful organization with chapters in all 50 US states and claiming some 10 million supporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The association \u2014 part of the umbrella group Everytown for Gun Safety \u2014 enjoys key financial support from billionaire and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
The red T-shirts worn by MDA members have become a familiar sight at demonstrations or outside state capitols, where many legislators have firsthand experience with the group\u2019s influence at the ballot box.<\/p>\n
A master of social media, Watts claims the group has scored 500 legislative victories on the local or national level, nearly always in opposition to the country\u2019s powerful pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.<\/p>\n
There have also been setbacks, which can fuel a sense of fatalism: Mass shootings have become so common, so unexceptional, that they no longer prompt big demonstrations across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But according to Watts it takes more than individual protests to \u201cchange legislation and culture.\u201d What\u2019s needed, she said, is \u201cwhat I call the unglamorous heavy lifting of grassroots activism.\u201d<\/p>\n
So she keeps pressing for ambitious federal actions \u2014 even if those seem doomed by Republicans\u2019 current control of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
A key goal is a nationwide requirement for potential gun buyers to undergo background checks \u2014 to weed out those with criminal records or serious psychiatric problems.<\/p>\n
Watts also wants to see a ban on military-style assault weapons of the type so frequently used in mass shootings. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, shares that goal but has been unable to push a ban through Congress.<\/p>\n
But there is one step Moms Demand Action will not take: seeking an outright ban on private gun ownership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a variety of different reasons you may want or need a gun,\u201d she told AFP. Her father owned one, as do many members of her organization, Watts said.<\/p>\n
And countries like Israel and Switzerland have \u201chigh rates of gun ownership, but low rates of gun violence,\u201d she noted. \u201cThose two things can co-exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, after 10 years heading Moms Demand Action, Watts will pass the reins of leadership to Angela Ferrell-Zabala.<\/p>\n
Watts, for her part, would not say what her next act might be \u2014 though she wouldn\u2019t rule out a future in politics.<\/p>\n
Given the national prominence she has earned through her MDA work, that would seem a logical move.<\/p>\n
But her high profile has also made her a target, in a country where love of guns is deeply visceral for many.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From her earliest days of activism she has been marked with threats. Heavily armed men have been expelled from events where she appeared.<\/p>\n
She travels with \u201csomeone who specializes in security,\u201d whose responsibilities include always knowing the location of \u201cthe nearest hospital to take me to if there\u2019s a shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Watts insisted she will not be silenced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we lose our children,\u201d she said, \u201cwe have nothing left to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n