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Why are parents afraid to drop kids off at school? Go to the grocery store? A concert? A church? Gun violence.
And that’s only what makes the news — not the 81 percent of murders involving a gun, and the overall violence that falls heaviest on Black and Brown women.
What do we do? Demand Action.
NOW National President Christian F. Nunes sits down this week with Angela Ferrell-Zabala, the executive director of Moms Demand Action. Together, they talk over guns as a partisan issue, the commonsense policies that could save lives, and how everyone can work to reduce gun violence.
*Producer Note: Please note that this episode contains references to gun violence that some may find disturbing.
Register for the NOW Racial Justice Convening: https://now.org/events/
Listen to new episodes of Feminism NOW released every other Wednesday. To find out more about the National Organization for Women, visit our website.
Creators & Guests
What is Feminism NOW?
Passionate about modern feminist issues? Want to learn more about how today's political, academic, and cultural leaders strive for a future of universal equality and justice?
Join NOW President Christian F. Nunes in a new podcast dedicated to intersectional feminist discussions in American society with leaders in entertainment, sports, politics, and science. From conversations on constitutional equality, to economic justice and reproductive rights, listeners will find new ways to learn, engage, and get empowered.
Listen for new episodes released every other Wednesday.
Christian F. Nunes (00:00):
This is just a note. Today's episode is about gun safety, which means it is also about gun violence too. Please take care of yourself as you listen. Welcome back to Feminism NOW. I'm Christian F. Nunes, the national president of the National Organization for Women. In every episode, I speak with leaders and activists on the frontlines fighting for equality, justice and peace.
(00:32):
Our theme this season is Women Leading Democracy. We're talking about issues that are important to women and our allies, and one of those issues is gun violence. In the 2022 midterms, gun violence was listed as one of the top six priorities for voters, higher than immigration or education. NOW is committed to ending violence against women in all of its forms, and one of those forms is gun violence.
(01:01):
We all deserve to conduct our lives in safety and peace. What do you think? We'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email at feminismnow@N-O-W.org. Now let's get to the show. Many people in this country are parents and many are students, some are both. Since the 1999 school shooting of Columbine High School in Colorado, parents and students alike have realized that young people and their teachers are not safe in schools.
(01:36):
Our sense of unease isn't limited to just schools anymore. Mass shootings occur at places of faith, in the grocery stores, movie theaters and parades. Gun violence isn't limited to just mass events. In 2021, 81% of murders in the United States involved a firearm. There has been a consistent increase in gun murders and gun suicides in the United States, especially in the last decade.
(02:03):
The weight of this gun violence falls most heavily on communities of color. Black women are more than twice as likely as white women to be shot by intimate partner. Indigenous women face three times the risk of gun violence than white women. Even when we escape unharmed, millions of women have been traumatized and threatened with firearms causing lasting trauma, but there are ways to make our world safer.
(02:27):
There are things that we can do, and that is why we are so pleased today to have with us Angela Ferrell-Zabala. She's the first executive director of Moms Demand Action. Previously, she was the senior vice president of Movement Building for Everytown for Gun Safety. Now she's growing the largest, you hear me? The largest gun violence prevention grassroots network in this country. Angela, we are so pleased to have you with us today. Thank you for joining us on Feminism NOW.
Angela Ferrell-Zabala (02:56):
Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here with you.
Christian F. Nunes (02:59):
Yeah. I am so excited to really bring this conversation to the feminist space, because a lot of times I feel like it gets left out or it gets very siloed when we talk about gun violence particularly.
(03:12):
Or we only talk about it in very small spaces, but it really is a feminist issue. Can you start off by just telling us a little bit more about how Moms Demand Action got started, the history about that, and how that intersects with the feminism space?
Angela Ferrell-Zabala (03:28):
Yes. Well, thank you for that question. We are almost 12 years old, and it started actually, what sparked this, my predecessor, Shannon Watts, this was after the Sandy Hook massacre that happened. She, like other people across this country, were trying to really wrap their heads around what just happened?
(03:47):
How in this country, where we talk about freedom and everything else and rights, that we have babies before the holidays that are massacred in their school? This was the first time probably many people, I think, outside of what you mentioned Columbine, which we are at the 25-year marker of that tragedy. The first time people had to really sit and contend with the fact that their schools were no longer a safe place to send their kids.
(04:10):
Now Columbine was the first time, but I do believe that people felt like that was a one-off. Now we're seeing here we are again. I think it was a moment where folks said, "Okay. This has to be the straw that breaks the camel's back when it comes to getting commonsense gun violence prevention legislation across the finish line in this country." Because who could stand by and see such a thing and not be moved to action?
(04:34):
Here we are, and moms from across the country said, "Hell no. This is not okay." They were really upset and they said, "We have to do something. We have to get off the sidelines. We cannot wait for Superman to come in and save us or our babies or our communities. We've got to get up and do that." This has been a build over that 12-year period. We're now 10 million strong across this country.
(04:57):
We are in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. We've got, we like to say, mothers and others, we've got Students Demand Action. We've got all kinds of leaders that are coming together from all walks of life to say, "We have got to do something more than thoughts and prayers, and wait for someone to save us."
Christian F. Nunes (05:14):
Absolutely. I love that about the fact that mothers decided that they're going to take this in their hands, and start being advocates and activists and demand change.
(05:26):
Also, you're very nonpartisan. But one of the things we do know is they really tried to make gun violence and the discussion about the issue of gun violence like it's been politicized lately. Wouldn't you agree?
Angela Ferrell-Zabala (05:37):
100%. Before I even get into that, I failed to mention the fact that while we've been here for 12 years and counting, there are people that came well before us that we stand on their shoulders. Particularly, Black and brown women that were in community having to do this before anyone cared, before this even made a headline.
(05:57):
They were having to bury their babies, or members of their family and community, and they were figuring it out and they still are. I just want to make sure that I honor that, because I wouldn't be here doing this work if not for them and not for the folks that came before me. But yeah, I think it's important when we look at how this become political, to just think about this is common sense.
(06:17):
Leading cause of death for kids, teens and young adults in this country, and that's just if we think broadly about kids, teens and young adults. When we think about Black children, 17 times more likely than their white peers to be shot and killed in the use of a firearm, so this is ridiculous. When I go across the country, I don't care if I'm in a red state, a blue state, a small town, a big city, no one is agreeing that this is okay and people do want to see action.
(06:43):
I think what we're seeing now, is a handful of extremists that are in the pocket of the gun lobby that are doing their bidding. Because when we see real people on the ground, when I'm having conversations with folks, again, it doesn't matter what state I'm in, they want to see action. They're actually really tired of this. Whether it's the daily gun violence, because we talk about school shootings, but that really is just the tip of the iceberg.
(07:06):
They're not the majority of, when we think about the crisis in this country, while it is horrifying, even myself as someone that knows that factually. When I have to take my kids to school, it does make me feel worried. But that's not in reality the majority of the gun violence in this country. It's the daily gun violence, but we have people every single day getting up to do something about this.
(07:28):
They want to see people with courage to do what it takes to protect their families and their communities. We're not, again, waiting for Superman. We're taking it on ourselves in partnership with other organizations that are leading this fight. Including, I have to shout out, community violence intervention organizations on the ground that do this every single day and put their lives at risk to stop cycles of violence.
(07:50):
But it is ridiculous because I always say, and I've worked across many different issues, including reproductive health rights and justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQI rights, civil rights, civic engagement, all of that stuff I've done over time. I will say, "There is no sense in waiting for someone to hand you something." That's why our volunteers, a lot of them survivors themselves, get up every day to do this work.
(08:16):
We understand the importance of this, and I always say again, "How do you measure the strength of a country or the moral of a country? It's by how they respond to things like this." When this is a leading cause of death for our kids, who are we, as a people, if that's going to continue to be the standard? It's unacceptable.
Christian F. Nunes (08:36):
Right. This brings me to my next question is like I know you're talking about how you all are showing up and you're doing this every day. But can you, for the listeners, explain what that looks like?
(08:45):
What does that look like on a nonpartisan level of how you show up and do this work on the full spectrum, from a hyperlocal all the way to national?
Angela Ferrell-Zabala (08:55):
Sure. When we say nonpartisan, we mean we will work with almost anybody that's willing to roll up their sleeves and actually focus on this issue. Because as you stated in the opening of this, is this touches many different, it's not in a vacuum. Your ability, your reproductive health rights and justice depend upon your ability to be safe and raise your children safely.
(09:16):
The environment, all kinds of things, you can touch it. We can point back to if we don't get this, our democracy. If we don't get the gun violence situation under control, if we don't break this guns everywhere culture with zero just commonsense regulation, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. What does that look like from day-to-day?
(09:36):
From hyperlocal, we have volunteers. Again, like I said, many survivors that get up and it may be as simple as having a conversation or meeting with community members to talk about what's at stake, what's at risk? What are they seeing in their communities? And start to really asset map and figure out like, "How do we start to bring some resolution here?"
(09:55):
Knowing that one pathway is definitely working on legislative pathway, figuring out what kinds of policies and things that we can get passed, that we can work with our champions that are very important. That's why elections matter. We can come back to that later, but our champions that are moving the work. But also showing the people that aren't willing to have the courage to stand up for families.
(10:15):
You have an opportunity to do this with us, but you also can decide not to and you can lose your job, because we're going to come for you because this is not okay. It can be something like that. We have a lot of our volunteers that have organically and now we've very intentionally started to help build them to run for office. Because we know that it's not just fighting for good policy.
(10:35):
It's not just out in these streets and doing the day-to-day. It's about also building the bench of people that are going to step up and actually lead with courage like they should. It's anything from that, testifying at hearings and such, door knocking when it comes to electoral season or any campaigns that are happening locally. Whether it's hyperlocal, state level or federal elections, we engage in that.
(10:57):
We work closely, any members of Congress, we want to help them to think about policies and bills and things that really are going to have the effects that we know that communities are desperately looking for through their day-to-day. The material things that are going to change and make sure that they're not just trying to survive, but they're actually thriving without the fear of gun violence.
(11:17):
We do a host of different things, and as I said earlier, not only is this Moms Demand Action, which is a part of Everytown for Gun Safety, but also Students Demand Action that are out here in these streets doing divestment campaigns on their campuses. Not only do we work with students in high school and college, we also work with students that may not be in college or in school.
(11:37):
But they are still young people whose lives are at risk, and many times, they may be survivors themselves and having lost several people, friends, family. We're working with any and everybody that's willing to step up and do the courageous and important, critical work of trying to get a handle on this epidemic in this country.
Christian F. Nunes (11:57):
That's so fantastic and so important because what you're showing is, one, you're tapping into the holistic approach to it. Also using, I call it, the assets and skills and strengths of everyone who can be involved in this movement, so that no one feels they can be left out. I appreciate that so much, but let's talk about policy and politics and elections a little bit.
(12:24):
Plus one thing that just happened, we just saw in Tennessee, was that they passed the law that allows teachers to carry firearms in the classroom. When I think about the fact that they would not make efforts to do more preventative measures, but passed legislation for teachers who we know already probably have some bias, implicit bias.
(12:55):
Some institutional racisms happening in these schools, and you want to do a lot of other things happening. To carry weapons, what do you feel as someone leading this gun violence prevention, what do you think that impact is going to have on the work that you all will have to do?
Angela Ferrell-Zabala (13:13):
Yeah. Well, thank you for that question. I first want to start and say the way that I view this is Tennessee and any state, I think, we have to separate the extremist lawmakers that are passing these ridiculous laws in the first place, from the actual constituents and citizens of that state that don't want it. So Tennessee, it might be hard.
(13:34):
It's hard because of the people elected that don't have the courage. It's not because of the citizens or the people that are standing up every single day and fighting for this. They're literally going against the will of the people. Nobody wants that for their children. In fact, I've worked closely and have built some relationships with some of the survivors of the Covenant School shooting there.
(13:55):
These women... And the reason I make note, because it is very easy when you think about the allies or the folks that you would expect that would show up to wear a red shirt, a mom's shirt, or go and rally or go and talk to their legislators. There are some people that aren't necessarily joiners of things. They've been living their lives and now tragedy has impacted them in their community and now they are stepping up.
(14:17):
I want everyone to know that when you step up and come to join me to fight this crisis, that's the right time, right? There's no such thing as like, "You weren't here before and everything." A lot of these folks, they may be in communities that haven't been disproportionately impacted, and they're showing up and showing out and saying it's not okay.
(14:36):
Law enforcement has showed up and showed out and they say, "This makes our jobs hard. This is not okay." Now when we think about also arming teachers, there's a couple things that go to my head. I'm a mother of four kids. How ridiculous is it that I want to pull up and drop off my kids to a school, that basically feels like a prison of some type? What does it look like?
(14:56):
How does it impact students, who may also be survivors and traumatized, when there's a teacher? It's not just teachers, it's faculty too. That means the person serving the lunch, it means it could be the custodian are armed. What is that saying to our children that are already the lockdown generation?
(15:14):
Number two, imagine these teachers are already, again, through drills or trained, that if something does go wrong, that they are pulling the kids together. Making sure they're keeping them quiet, pulling down the blinds, doing all the things you do, keep away from windows. But now you're adding that extra burden that they're going to go confront a suspect and leave maybe a class of kindergartners there to fend for themselves.
(15:35):
How absolutely outrageous. Then add this, law enforcement is trained to do this. Even in these types of crisis, their accuracy and things change, like when the adrenaline's running. Now you have a teacher, I don't know how much training they're giving, but there's not enough. They also didn't sign up for this. They signed up to teach, so it's absolutely outrageous.
(15:56):
I can tell you that the majority of people don't want to see that, not in Tennessee, not really anywhere. This is passed in Iowa as well. It's up in Missouri and Alaska, there's other states. This is a trend that's happening. We're going to keep showing up and fighting. We're going to keep building the coalition of the willing that are going to stand up and say, "Enough is enough."
(16:17):
While that's important for us to do, it's also equally important to build the bench of leaders that will have the courage, again, to not do such ridiculous things. This is not proactive. Do you understand that we're arming more people? If more guns made us safer, we wouldn't even be talking right now, because we'd be the safest place on the planet. That's not the case.
(16:36):
Tell me what happens when the teacher doesn't securely store that firearm and a kid gets a hold of it. Also, tell me when a faculty or teacher, who are humans as everyone else has a bad day or something happens, whether it's threatening someone with a gun or any incident happens, or it goes off in their pocket or wherever. However, they're holding or not holding and storing the guns, this makes no sense.
(16:56):
We're turning this into a situation that only can escalate. We're going to keep fighting. Most of all, we're going to remember the people that did not stand up for Tennesseans or whomever, whatever other states are doing this, and we are going to come for them, period. Just think about the fact that when we usually have like when we think about, we're going to focus on mass shootings or when the shootings happen at school.
(17:20):
There's a good portion of the time that the people that are perpetrating are former students. Now you have a teacher like, "I'm going to be confronting a former student like a shoot off. What is this?" I think, again, we want to focus and I want to make it very clear because I said we're going to come for folks. That's not in a violent way.
(17:38):
In a political way, electorally, if you're not doing your job, you can find another one, okay? Because this is not where you need to be if you're not willing to stand up and do what's going to make people safer and the will of the people, frankly. We're not going to let up. Yeah. Accountability, 100%, so we're not going to let up. We're going to have to continue to point and show.
(18:01):
Not just what is at stake if we allow this trend to continue, but also we have to uncover what is behind this? I want to make sure people are seeing that the gun industry, in particular, the bad players in the gun industry, they're raking in $9 billion a year, blood on their hands. There are ways that now today they could actually make their products less deadly.
(18:27):
They can innovate towards safety and not more lethality. That's actually what's happening right now, so there's ways we're going to do industry accountability. We're going to do accountability of elected officials. We're going to keep making sure we're spreading the word and having people show up, tell their stories.
(18:44):
Make sure your neighbors, your friends, your family know what's at stake. This is heinous and this is not inevitable. We actually have the tools to make this right.
Christian F. Nunes (18:53):
I really appreciate you pointing this out because a lot of times I feel like we always hold accountability in balance. We want to put out all of accountability on the perpetrator or the person who... When I say perpetrator, I'm meaning the person who actually commits the crime, and they're not to me the only perpetrator in it. They're just a person who actually committed the crime.
(19:15):
But the person who made semi-automatic weapons available to everyday persons on the street, why does anybody need a semi-automatic weapon? It's not a sport. It's not a sport, hobby-type of weapon. You have to think about, like you just named, the people who are producing and manufacturing these weapons. The people who are selling them, the people who are using this to make profit.
(19:37):
Everyone, there's an accountability on all levels. I really appreciate you just pulling that out, because so often we're always like, "Well, that person did this," but what else is behind it? What's the root cause behind this?
Angela Ferrell-Zabala (19:49):
Right. Let's go up the chain and see how it got to this place in the first place. You mentioned having weapons of war, that's one thing. They have no place in our communities, neighborhoods and streets. We work closely, I have veterans in my family, I have gun owners in my family, and nobody agrees that this makes any sense. We work closely with veterans too.
(20:07):
We have a veteran advisory council in Everytown, and many of them are like we have... The motto is safety, training and accountability, and how is that happening in average civilian? Even on base, you can't just carry your weapon around, so there's ways. We are not, again, against Second Amendment, so if you're a gun owner, you must be responsible.
(20:29):
There are weapons that we should not have accessible to everybody. On top of this, I think what is so frustrating is that we actually have the answers. We actually know how to prevent these tragedies in the first place. Instead of starting at the back end, that we're just going to assume that people are going to be shot.
(20:47):
Our people are going to come in with guns or let's just arm. Why don't we start from the top and just say, "Hey, there's things that we can do right now, commonsense measures we can take to prevent"? Number one, if you're a gun owner, secure, store. Securely store your firearm so it doesn't get into the wrong hands in the first place.
(21:03):
That's young people. There's so many unintentional shootings that happen that many people don't talk about, but you just find a loaded gun under a bed or in a drawer, or on a shelf or wherever it may be. Do you know how many young people lose their lives, or either take someone else's unintentionally because that was not properly stored? That's the first thing.
(21:24):
We should be able, at the very least, to say, "You should securely store your firearm." We have people that have their guns in their car, their glove box. This is now a leading crime here, is to go in and break into a car to steal a gun and to use that, so here we are. There are places that are saying that they actually disagree that an owner of a gun should report a stolen or missing gun.
(21:48):
They feel like that is not a thing that they should be pushing. These are legislatures, these are extremists that say, "This can't happen." They don't think you should have to securely store your firearm. What is it that you want? What are you doing? Because we're not against Second Amendment and we're fine that people are gun owners.
(22:06):
Again, I have gun owners in my family, totally fine, but they're responsible. These commonsense solutions could actually help to keep guns out of the wrong hands in the first place, and we could even start there. There's so much more that we could do but this, we surely can agree on that.
Christian F. Nunes (22:24):
Absolutely, absolutely. I totally agree with you. We'll be back with more from Angela Ferrell-Zabala in just a moment before we take a break to talk about some action now. We would love to invite you to our upcoming virtual symposium, the Racial Justice Summit. It is on June 18th starting at 6:00 PM. This is our fifth annual Racial Justice Summit, and we are so excited.
(22:51):
The theme is Demanding Racial Equity NOW. We would love to see you virtually at our symposium and you can visit N-O-W.org to register. Join and help us take action now. Let's get back to our interview. Angela, this has been such a great conversation. I'm so glad that you're really talking about the really plausible, realistic solutions that can be done right at the very beginning, preventive solutions, right?
(23:26):
Because so often, people make it seem like it's so hard, like the work is so hard to do. But can you tell us some more about simple solutions and policies that are in the works right now, that can really help transform and make our country safer?
Angela Ferrell-Zabala (23:42):
Yes. We absolutely have a lot going on, and the way that we do our work, Moms Demand Action in Everytown, is that we really are honing into the different states and regions so we make it fit every place. Some of the things that, in addition to I mentioned secure storage, we're thinking about Extreme Risk Protection Orders.
(24:01):
This allows someone to flag if there is a person that is in crisis and is a danger to themselves or others. When we talk about gun violence, I'd be remiss if I did not mention it's not just homicide, gun homicide, which most people think about. Gun violence is gun homicide. There is pieces around domestic violence and intimate partner violence.
(24:21):
There is gun suicide. There's unintentional shootings that happen, and of course, police violence that happen. We're looking at the totality of that, so background check, something very simple. You've got to go through a background check, make sure that you are okay to have a firearm. That seems pretty simple, but there are places that are fighting that.
(24:41):
In fact, I was just in North Carolina yesterday for our advocacy day with our incredible Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action leaders and other incredible advocacy groups that are on the ground there, hearing about the fact that they allow someone to have a gun without a permit. There's no background check, which means there are people that might go through a background check system and there are flags.
(25:04):
They will not have access or be permitted to purchase a firearm. If you don't have those basic checks in place, then any and everybody can carry, right? That's a problem for us. We think about any other industry in this country, even thinking about automobiles, having seatbelt, making sure people have insurance. There's responsibility to driving that car.
(25:24):
Yes, people will always say this, "Well, it's not the gun or it's not the car." You're right, but we have to have the sense. We have to have common sense around how we regulate and ensure that even though you have the right, for instance, to operate a motor vehicle, you should be trained, you should be licensed. You should have insurance. You should wear the proper seatbelts and make sure your cars are maintained.
(25:47):
That's the same thing when it comes to guns. If you're a gun owner, there are things that you should be abiding by. It's one of the few places where they actually have immunity, and we cannot hold the gun industry accountable. We're going to be coming for that and making sure people understand, "Stop thinking about this bumper sticker, easy, salacious thing that they're trying to take your guns."
(26:10):
What we're trying to do is have common sense here. What we're trying to do is save our children. What we're trying to do is make sure you can go to school and learn. What we're trying to do is make sure that your walk from school to home isn't a dangerous route. That's what we're trying to do. It's very simple.
Christian F. Nunes (26:26):
Everyone can relate to these things. I'm a mother of soon to be five-year-old in three weeks, Black boy, and it's fearful for me to think about what's at stake for him. Because one, he's super tall, he's four. He's already like four feet tall, so super tall, and people automatically assume he's older. Also, my son has autism, so there's other things that impair.
(26:53):
Sometimes he doesn't under... I have so much anxiety at times worrying about how someone will over criminalize him or assume about his behavior, because he's a Black child and what that might look like. There's an additional fear for me as a Black mother with that for my child with gun violence.
(27:16):
I think what you're talking about, we're talking about common sense and getting people to understand, these everyday things is so, so, so extremely important, because it really impacts everyone in every single way. We have to do this work.
(27:33):
We need organizations like yourself to be out there connecting the dots and make sure people know this is not partisan, this is issue-based. This is about protecting families. This is about protecting children. This is about making sure they have a future and a life more than anything.
Angela Ferrell-Zabala (27:52):
It's a public health issue at the end of the day. It's a public health issue and we need to approach it as such.
Christian F. Nunes (27:58):
Absolutely, absolutely. I would love for you to tell us, as we're getting close to the end, some other victories you all have had, so we can just hear those victories.
(28:08):
And how everyone can get involved in this work and this movement.
Angela Ferrell-Zabala (28:13):
Yes. Oh, my goodness. I'm so glad you asked the question of victories because it is really easy to look at the gaps. Make no mistake, we've got a lot of work to do but we have made a lot of progress. Just over 11, 12 years ago when we first started Moms Demand Action, this was a third rail of politics. No one could talk about this and be unscathed. It was just like a lightning rod issue.
(28:35):
Even a quarter of House Democrats got an A rating from the NRA. Now none do, zero, and they wear that proudly. I think some of the things that, and there's many things I can get into, but I'll just name some of the big ones. We broke a 30-year law jam with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that was passed a couple years ago under this administration, the Biden-Harris administration, which was really, really incredible.
(29:00):
Again, I'm going to say bipartisan. We have 15 Republicans on that, and we were able... That was a really good step forward. There's so many things that were a part of that package that was passed. But it really signaled that this administration is taking this issue very, very seriously. The other thing, the very first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, incredible.
(29:23):
I want to shout out Greg Jackson and Rob Wilcox and Steph over there that are doing incredible work, incredible work. Again, that shows you their commitments, so those are two big things. We've had so many state victories. We've blocked so many across this country in different states. We blocked about 95% of the bad bills that were coming out through the NRA.
(29:45):
We have done things in many states, including about 11 states now, the ban assault weapons, everything. We are looking at every single option from legislative to cultural, and ways that we're actually having people utilize our platforms. Whether it is we have more and more athletes and other celebrities coming out just to speak not only some of these folks, their own survivor stories.
(30:08):
But actually using their profile and using their platform to say, "Hey, we have a responsibility in this country to do everything we can to protect our communities and our children, most of all." We are always looking for ways to make sure that we can get this across the finish line, because it's an all heels on deck time, right? This is affecting, again, there are people more disproportionately affected.
(30:32):
Black and brown folks in this country that are doing this hard work in the streets. We see that's another victory I want to name is that we got a lot of funding for gun violence intervention groups that have been advocating strong for that forever and ever and ever. It was so incredible to see that as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
(30:51):
That continues through this administration to recognize the importance of on-the-ground intervention that is helping to break cycles of violence. And helping to curb and really heal communities that are traumatized by this all the time. Many of those stories never even break a headline, so there's a lot to be done. But look, we're moving this, and people, most of all, are running and winning on this issue.
(31:17):
I was in Virginia just for the midterms and we're having an election coming up. There's elections happening all the time. We see that folks are stepping up and talking about how important this issue is and what they want to do to make sure they're keeping our families safe. That is driving voters to say, "Yeah, you're right. I am tired." They are winning on this, so this is not something to run away from anymore.
(31:39):
We are fired up and ready for the upcoming election to make sure that we are out here strong. That we're supporting candidates that are going to make sure that they are prioritizing the health and wellbeing of our families.
Christian F. Nunes (31:51):
I am so excited to hear all this, these victories. I think it is wonderful. Thank you for all that you're doing to lead the way. As a woman, as a woman of color, as a Black, queer woman that is doing the work, I think it just is so amazing.
(32:05):
I just appreciate you doing all this work because it shows why you are so needed in this movement, because you can represent and speak to the narrative of those directly impacted. I really appreciate your leadership in this and the work that you're doing.
(32:19):
So can you share with us how someone can get involved in this if they are interested in this movement?
Angela Ferrell-Zabala (32:24):
Yes, absolutely. We're always looking for more folks to jump up with us and happy to partner with any and everybody that wants to roll up their sleeves and get to work. The first thing you can do is have a conversation with someone about this issue. Really talk about why it's important. Don't shy away from folks. You're like, "Oh, they won't be with me."
(32:41):
Have a conversation, that human to human is so important. The second thing is you can text READY to 64433 and get involved with Moms Demand Action. If you're a student, you can also reach out to us and we can get you involved with our student groups there that we have here across the country.
(32:57):
But someone will reach out to you directly and figure out what is it that you want to contribute? Nothing is too small, nothing is too big. There's no prerequisite.
Christian F. Nunes (33:04):
Well, thank you so much for being here. For the listeners, I want you to make sure that you are doing something, whether you're getting out there voting. If you know someone who's not doing their due, elected official, hold them accountable. Make sure you're supporting Moms Demand Action in Everytown. Thank you so much, Angela Ferrell-Zabala, for joining us today on Feminism NOW.
(33:29):
Thank you, listeners, for being with us as we use season two of our podcast to showcase people making a real difference to women and their allies in democracy. Stay tuned for our next episodes, as we cover the issues that affect women most. Childcare and voting rights, reproductive justice and gun violence. The rise of Generation Z, and the need for healthcare for all, from affordable prescriptions to gender-affirming care.
(33:56):
This podcast, Feminism NOW, is a production of the National Organization for Women and Voxtopica. I'm Christian F. Nunes, NOW's national president. If you like what you hear, please go to N-O-W.org, read up on our core issues and our approach to advancing women's equality, and get involved. We'd love to hear from you. Send your thoughts to feminismnow@N-O-W.O-R-G. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you soon.
VO (34:30):
Voxtopica.