Federal Advocacy

Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund translates our grassroots power into federal action. We connect Members of Congress and their staff with the research, policy know-how, and the support they need to win gun safety victories on Capitol Hill. Everytown works with policymakers across the federal government on both sides of the aisle to advance smart, data-driven, pragmatic gun violence prevention policies and stop the NRA’s dangerous agenda—via legislation, executive action, or regulations.

Our grassroots—including not only Moms Demand Action volunteers in their red shirts, but also students, veterans, faith leaders, survivors of gun violence, and more—are meeting face-to-face with Members of Congress, testifying at and sitting in on committee hearings, and holding elected officials accountable day-in and day-out in Washington, D.C.

Recent Victories

116th Congress

• July 2020

  The fiscal year 2021 appropriations bills passed by the House include $55 million in funding for gun violence research, as well as several key gun safety provisions that address the surge in gun sales during the coronavirus pandemic, background checks, school safety, domestic violence, city gun violence, police violence, ghost guns, veteran firearm suicide, and illegal guns. This was the strongest gun safety appropriations package to ever pass either chamber of Congress.

• June 2020

  The House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act by a 55-vote margin, including support from three Republicans. This legislation marks an important step towards addressing racial profiling and police violence, which is all too often perpetrated with a gun.

• December 2019

  The House and Senate passed and the President signed into law a spending bill that appropriates $25 million in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health to research gun violence. This marked the first time in more than 20 years that Congress appropriated funding specifically for gun violence research.

• April 2019

  The House passed the bipartisan Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (H.R. 1585) with support from 33 Republicans, despite the NRA scoring the vote. It included life-saving measures to keep guns away from domestic abusers and ensure that law enforcement is informed when domestic abusers fail a background check and are stopped from purchasing a firearm.

• February 2019

  The day after the House passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act (H.R. 8), the House also passed the Enhanced Background Checks Act (H.R. 1112), a bipartisan measure that would address the Charleston loophole, which allows a gun sale to move forward after three business days, even if a background check has not been completed.

• February 2019

  The House of Representatives passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act (H.R. 8), which would require background checks on all gun sales, by a vote of 240-190–including support from eight Republican legislators. This was the first major piece of gun violence prevention legislation to pass either chamber of Congress in two decades.

General Resources

Resources on Bills

Resources for States