Jennifer Gerson
Originally published in The 19th.
In news shared exclusively with The 19th, GIFFORDS, the gun safety advocacy group founded by former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has named veteran campaign manager Emma Brown as its new executive director. The group recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and is looking for ways to connect with voters in purple and red states about gun safety and gun violence prevention as the 2024 races take shape.
Giffords described Brown, 30, as an “old soul” and told The 19th: “I have had the opportunity to see her leadership and innovation up close, and I know she is the perfect person to help lead GIFFORDS into the next era.”
Brown said he got into politics when Trump won the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. “I realized that we are at an inflection point, a moment where time is slowing down and shrinking somewhat. “One day, when I tell my children all these stories, I ask myself, will I be able to look them in the eyes and tell them I did everything I could when our country was in crisis?”
It's the same question she said helps focus gun violence prevention efforts, and one she believes ties in closely with the groundwork already accomplished since the day Giffords was shot in a grocery store parking lot in Arizona. no see. Organized event in January 2011.
“Gabby is an inspiration to people. Her courage and her determination – people react to her in a really different way than I’ve ever seen,” Brown said. Through her hard-earned campaign work, she understood the unique power Giffords' personal work and that of the organization she founded had on consensus building.
A seasoned campaign strategist, Brown most recently ran a high-profile re-election campaign in Arizona for Giffords' husband, Sen. Mark Kelly, and oversaw the Biden campaign's work in the state in 2020. Previously, she managed Betsy Dirksen's congressional campaign. It also includes Londgrian in Illinois and Lindsay Davis Stover in Virginia, as well as the campaigns of Wendy Gooditis for Virginia House of Representatives. She also worked on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign in Ohio.
“Despite all the partisanship and division we have in our culture right now, what I’ve really found is that most people want the same thing. They want to work hard, put food on the table, and make sure their families are safe and comfortable. take care of yourself.” Brown said. “They’re afraid of their children, they’re afraid of church, they’re afraid of synagogues, they’re afraid of even going to the grocery store.”
That's why Brown sees the work ahead at GIFFORDS as a tremendous opportunity to unite diverse constituencies around a common goal without being polarizing or impossible.
Brown pointed to 90% of Americans supporting universal background checks, including 70% of National Rifle Association (NRA) members and 83% of Republicans. “People would have us believe that this issue is too difficult, that we are too deep, that we are too controversial. But we know that’s not true,” she said. That's why Brown said the need for coalition building is not only critical, but grassroots community work is key to delivering policy-driven solutions.
One important group that Brown wants to unite is women. Women's interests in gun violence will likely be addressed in 2022 when the Supreme Court considers Dobbs v. In Jackson Women's Health Organization, Roe v. Because it grew even more so after overturning the Wade decision and ending the constitutional right to abortion. Nearly 20% of American women will experience some form of domestic violence during pregnancy, and homicide is the leading cause of death for Americans who are pregnant or have given birth in the past year. According to the most recent data, 81% of these deaths are firearm-related. Calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline reporting reproductive coercion, a form of domestic violence, doubled in the first year after the Dobbs decision, and as restrictions on abortion care increased, women's health providers were already offering domestic violence interventions to their patients. They face more barriers to delivering. It has been implemented nationwide. In a country where domestic violence, gun violence, and reproductive rights are intrinsically linked, the reality of the Dobbs decision is that there are more gun deaths among pregnant people.
“We are having a fundamental conversation about how much this country prioritizes the safety and lives of women. [election] “When we look at the 2022 results, it is clear from an electoral perspective that American women are tired of their lives, their agency, their safety and their well-being,” she said.
Brown argued that Roe v. Wade decision and the gun possession case currently pending before the Supreme Court, United States v. She said gun safety legislation is even more important for women because of the amplified risks caused by Rahimi's loss in the case.
Mass shootings have brought red flag laws to the public's attention, as has Rahimi's case, which challenges a federal law that prohibits people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms. In the Rahimi case, the NRA filed an opinion arguing that domestic violence restraining orders are inherently unconstitutional.
Brown said American women are “a strong, powerful voting bloc, as we have seen time and time again.” But she added that American women are “21 times more likely to die by gun than women in other high-income countries.”
Brown said she articulates this issue as well as helping women connect with the innate feelings many of them already have about how their lives are currently in jeopardy. “After Roe was overturned, we saw a huge surge of women voters who spoke out against the fact that their rights, their choices, and their bodies were last. “This year, the Supreme Court has an important opportunity to prioritize women’s lives over the rights of domestic abusers, as we saw in its overwhelming support of Rahimi’s case.”
Brown pointed to a recent study conducted in California that found the state's red flag law prevented 58 potential mass shootings during the year the study was conducted. More than two-thirds of all shootings involve an initial act of domestic violence that often involves the use of a firearm. The passage of red flag laws, which disarm people who are potentially dangerous to themselves or others, has also become a key tool for preventing domestic violence, Brown said. “Women voters are really interested and tracking who supported this and who didn’t.”
As she begins her tenure as Executive Director at GIFFODS, Brown is also focused on a new state-based strategy for the organization, with initial field efforts beginning in Florida and Texas. Gun violence and crime are among the most important issues for Latino voters, surpassing immigration and border issues. The organization's research also shows that voters want lawmakers to take immediate action on this issue. Brown calls Texas and Florida excellent places for organizations to focus and strengthen their work, places where the potential to reach and flip voters is “significant and underdeveloped.” “No country is going to be a safe state where people don’t worry about gun violence tomorrow,” Brown said. “We need to be able to show progress and momentum where the political climate is difficult, where we can't win every time, but where we can put together a program and a roadmap to make our state safer. “It’s more important than anything else.”
Thinking this way means investing in community violence intervention at the most basic level, Brown said, pointing to the work of GIFFODS colleague Paul Carillo. He leads the group's strategy in this area, focusing on “the kinds of everyday gun violence that don't always make headlines but have a disproportionate and devastating impact on Latino communities.” A study conducted by GIFFODS found that between 2014 and 2020, the number of Hispanics killed by gun violence increased 66%, double the national rate of gun deaths. Firearm homicides have been the second leading cause of death for Hispanic males ages 15 to 34 in the United States over the past 20 years. Organizations like the one Brown now directs have an obligation to ensure that local leaders and groups already established within the community are best equipped to stop the cycle of violence, she said.
She also said the group's mission should be to communicate “competently, consistently and early” with Latino voters about gun violence prevention. Brown said GIFFORDS plans to appear regularly in the community to hear their concerns and provide practical tools for support. “We can’t show up and start talking to Latino voters two months before the election and expect it to be some kind of magical mobilization. “This is a more long-term, permanent program.”
She said the group's goal is “to get states to pass laws to save lives, especially the lives of black and brown people who are disproportionately affected.”
Culturally, the next step, Brown says, is to build a coalition of voters previously considered unattainable. This includes Spanish speakers in historically red states, gun owners, or conservative white women.
GIFFORDS board member Adrian Saenz said Brown's outlook is exactly why she was hired for the position. “She led very large campaigns and won nationally, including during the Trump era, in difficult states like Arizona that became even more difficult during that time.” Saenz said the board saw a “transformative opportunity” in Brown to build a broader coalition, a bigger tent. She actually thought she needed to be in the red and purple states to save her life. “She came from that environment and thrived in that environment.”
And Brown is confident that this is absolutely possible. “This is no longer a political issue,” she said. “It used to be a partisan, political issue that people were afraid to touch, but that’s no longer the case in elections or culture or conversation.” She points to how President Joe Biden has made talking about gun safety a cornerstone of his re-election strategy. She said this would have been “unthinkable” 10 years ago, when GIFFORDS was first founded.
Giffords emphasized that the organization he founded has had a remarkable track record over the past decade and that work has laid the foundation for what Brown does next. “Over the past decade, we have passed more than 620 gun safety laws in states across the country, enacted the first federal gun safety laws in nearly 30 years, and built an organization to stand up to the gun lobby,” the former congressman said. “We are thrilled to have Emma join this new chapter.”
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