Danielle's Moms Demand Action Fundraising Page

I’ve been politically active since birth, raised by parents who were anti-war/anti-nukes/non-violence activists, taking their 4 kids to protests in the morning before school. But I didn’t really give much thought to guns. I’ve lived in places as diverse as rural PA and Brooklyn – gun violence didn’t feel like anything anyone could do something about. It felt like a foreign culture, and politically, it was just something that had to be compromised to win on other issues.

When Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012, I got very caught up in imagining what it would feel like to be his mother--or any mother of a black son who fears for her child every time he leaves home. As a mom, things sometimes hit you differently. And like many moms across the country, I was absolutely flattened the day I heard the news of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. When that shooting happened, I had a 4-year-old and 1-year-old. Suddenly, this didn’t feel like something that happened to other people. Suddenly, keeping my kids safe from gun violence felt like a part of being a good mom. When my son was 2-years-old, I read in the New York Times that the most common victims of unintentional shootings are 3-year-old boys. I felt an overwhelming fear that if I didn’t act, it would be him, and when that receded, an overwhelming feeling that if it wasn’t my son, it was someone else’s child. I knew that, for all of the mothers who have lost children to guns, I could no longer ignore what’s happening in this country.

The idea of a group of moms working together to prevent gun violence made sense to me from the day Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America was founded. It was what brought me to the issue and it felt like a movement that could really change the conversation, for moms to stand in this previously unoccupied middle ground and talk about common sense reform. And for anyone who cares about anyone’s kids to stand with them.

If YOU have had enough and are ready to stand with me and fight for all of the mothers and others who have lost someone to our out-of-control culture of guns anywhere, anytime for anyone, please consider donating today. If you're wondering how much to give, consider this:

• $5 - When a gun is present in a domestic violence situation, a woman is 5 times more likely to be killed.
• $10 - Maryland Moms went to Annapolis 10 times this year to fight for a law to keep guns away from domestic abusers. Infuriatingly, the bill died. Our MOMentum didn’t.
• $25 - Americans are 25 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than people in other developed countries.
• $47 - Background checks save lives: In states that require background checks on all handgun sales, there are 47% fewer suicides by gun.
• $57 - A majority of mass shootings - 57% - involve incidents of domestic violence.
• $93 - Every day, 93 Americans are killed by gun violence.
• $167 - Number of days since I agreed to be Maryland Chapter Leader for Moms (as of the start of this campaign).
• $33,000 - It's almost as crazy to think someone would donate $1 for each person killed as it is that this is how many people are lost to gun violence each year.

Will you join me in the fight to prevent gun violence? Whether $5, $47, or $93, your generous contribution will support groundbreaking research into the causes of gun violence, and how it can be prevented through evidence-based policies and practices. You will be helping me and other volunteers communicate this message far and wide as we work together to change our broken, toxic culture — because it wasn't always like this and it doesn't have to be like this.

We CAN end gun violence!