The Democrats Abroad Global Women’s Caucus fully supports the hundreds of March For Our Lives events taking place around the world on March 24th, in solidarity with the youth and families of March For Our Lives who will take to the streets of Washington DC to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end this epidemic of mass school shootings.
As women, we cannot tolerate the gross negligence of the American government which permits horrific mass murders of our nation's children in schools, simply because Congress refuses to pass sensible laws restricting the purchase of assault weapons to keep them out of the hands of those who should not have them.
The Global Women's Caucus also recognizes and reminds everyone that the gun violence epidemic affects women very specifically. Domestic violence and gun ownership overlap in the US where 40% of American households own guns. 80% of those killed by gun violence at the hands of an intimate partner are women. And American women are 11 times more likely to die from gun violence than women of any other country. As former Congresswoman Gabby Gifford put it at the 2015 Domestic Violence Awareness Summit:
“dangerous people with guns are a threat to women. Criminals with guns. Abusers with guns. Stalkers with guns. That makes gun violence a women’s issue. For mothers, for families, for me and you”.
We urge all members of Democrats Abroad and the Global Women’s Caucus to change this paradigm by joining, supporting or hosting an event, by registering to vote and getting friends and family to register to vote and by making sure to VOTE out the NRA and the GOP in 2018.
Americans overseas can use: http://www. votefromabroad.org to get all you need register/request a ballot, and vote. DO IT NOW!
For all information on the March 24 rallies, marches and other events in your country, please check with your Country Committee Chair or, you don’t have a Country Committee, check with your Regional Vice Chairs. We also invite you to visit the GWC caucus page on the Democrats Abroad website: http://www.democratsabroad.org/wc_events as we will be posting events as we receive them from our members.
If you have any questions, please contact the GWC Co Chairs, Ann Hesse and Salli Swartz at: [email protected]