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Everytown, Georgia Moms Release New Television Ad Urging Governor Deal to Veto Guns on Campus Bill

3.31.2016

TV Ad (Which You Can View Here) Urges Deal to Stand with 78 Percent of Georgians Who Oppose Allowing Guns on College Campuses

ATLANTA – Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and the Georgia chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a part of Everytown for Gun Safety, today released a new television ad urging Governor Deal to veto HB 859, the dangerous guns on campus legislation currently on his desk. The ad highlights the dangers of mixing college students, alcohol and guns and asks Georgians to call on Governor Deal to veto the bill that would ignore the opposition of 78 percent of Georgians and force colleges to allow guns on campus. It will begin airing today.

“We’re asking Governor Deal to put the safety of students ahead of the interests of the gun lobby,” said Lindsey Donovan, volunteer Chapter Leader of the Georgia chapter of Moms Demand Action. “Moms, students, educators, and campus police—those who know our campuses best—have spoken out against guns on campus for months and now it’s time for Governor Deal to stand with the four out of five Georgians who know that allowing guns on campus is a dangerous idea.”

Earlier this month, Everytown and the Georgia chapter of Moms Demand Action launched another version of the television ad that called on legislators to reject this dangerous bill. And just last week, members of the Georgia chapter of Moms Demand Action and allies delivered more than 20,000 signatures of Georgians opposing the bill. The Moms Demand Action volunteers—just a few of the more than 120,000 Everytown supporters in the state—delivered the simple message that the safety of students should come before the interests of the gun lobby.

Last year, Georgia was one of sixteen states that rejected guns on campus legislation. Texas and Idaho are two of the only states to pass guns on campus bills in recent years and they are already seeing the consequences. Just two weeks after Idaho’s guns on campus bill went into effect, a professor shot himself in the foot during class. And in Texas, renowned professors have announced that they will leave the UT system to take jobs in other states, while many of the educators who have remained in Texas have said that the law is undermining professors’ ability to teach. What’s more, Texas will have to endure skyrocketing insurance costs as a result of the law that will cut into research budgets.