The Brady Campaign For Social Change: The Gun Control Movement

The gun control movement has used a variety of different tactics and strategies to bring about social change. The gun control movement and its organizations have utilized grassroots organizing to incite social change (Childress, 2014). Groups like Moms Demand Action, March For Our Lives, and Everytown for Gun Safety use rallies, protests, and other public demonstrations. For example, the March For Our Lives organization has had multiple extremely successful marches, most notably the march on Washington D.C. in 2018 (March For Our Lives, 2024). Additionally, the gun control movement utilizes voter mobilization to create social change. Many gun control organizations stress the importance of voting for elected officials that will work to prioritize

The Brady campaign's main goal is to end gun violence by changing the laws, changing the industry, and changing the culture (Brady, 2024). In the sense of institutional change, the gun control movement aims to enact policy reform that promotes stricter gun laws. The Brady campaign aims to make institutional changes by passing “common-sense laws” that would ideally limit gun ownership by dangerous people (Brady, 2024). The gun control movement works to pass laws at the local, state, and national levels (Brady, 2024; Everytown for Gun Safety, 2024; Guns Down America, 2024; Moms Demand Action, 2024). Additionally, the gun control movement has started to target the banking sector. Guns Down America (2024) has worked to target banks to stop funding irresponsible and unethical gun manufacturers. The gun control movement is now also pressuring credit card companies to take responsibility for reporting and flagging suspicious purchases of guns and ammo (Guns Down America, 2024). Another powerful institutional initiative that the gun control movement has utilized is to target the

Additionally, the Brady campaign has won $70 million in verdicts and settlements on behalf of gun violence victims (Brady, 2024). The Brady Campaign reported successes are more intangible than other successes in the gun control movement (Almeida, 2019). Moms Demand Action has also been successful in their movement based on their evaluation of goals and achievements (Almeida, 2019). Victories of Moms Demand Action include legislative accomplishments, the election of candidates with “gun sense”, and open carry prohibitions in restaurants and grocery stores (Moms Demand Action, 2024). Guns Down America (2024) has had recent victories in passing laws that hold credit card companies accountable. Credit card companies are flagging suspicious pattern charges for guns and firearms. The persistence of the gun control movement has led to landmark achievements each year. Notably, in the summer of 2022, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was enacted into federal law (March For Our Lives,