{"id":1311211,"date":"2019-06-10T10:06:40","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T16:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=980626"},"modified":"2019-06-10T10:06:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T16:06:40","slug":"how-a-colorado-mother-became-the-national-rifle-associations-worst-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/how-a-colorado-mother-became-the-national-rifle-associations-worst-nightmare\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Colorado mother became the National Rifle Association\u2019s worst nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Shannon Watts poses for a portrait on June 4, 2019 in Boulder, Colorado. Watts founded the nationally popular activist group called Moms Demand Action that fights for gun control legislation in all 50 states. The group has created a grassroots network of nearly 6 million moms across the country who said they take on the NRA.<\/strong>
Photo by Helen H. Richardson\/The Denver Post<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Shannon Watts folded laundry as news of the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 20 children and six adults flashed across her television screen in 2012, rattling something inside the mother of five that couldn\u2019t be stifled. That newfound, burning activism would soon position the Colorado woman to identify herself as the National Rifle Association\u2019s worst nightmare.<\/p>\n

Watts scoured Facebook after the Sandy Hook shooting, looking to join a group similar to Mothers Against Drunk Driving<\/a> but with a focus on ending gun violence. When she couldn\u2019t find what she was looking for, she made her own. The group became Moms Demand Action<\/a>, now one of the most well-known gun control organizations in the nation with almost six million supporters. Watts remains at the helm, pushing through death threats and personal call-outs from the NRA<\/a> to help pass gun-control legislation in statehouses around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about policy or organizing,\u201d Watts said. \u201cI just knew more guns was not the solution. I only had 75 Facebook friends, but it was like lightning in a bottle. People kept finding and joining the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The online conversation evolved into an offline movement.<\/p>\n

Watts describes some of the organization\u2019s biggest victories as helping 20 states pass stronger gun laws in 2018 with nine signed into law by republican governors; passing red flag laws like the one in Colorado<\/a> that temporarily removes firearms from people believed to be at high risk of harming themselves or others; electing dozens of Moms Demand Action volunteers and gun violence survivors to local and federal office; and convincing businesses from Starbucks to Chipotle to Target to ask customers to stop open carrying in stores.<\/p>\n

Continue reading via Denverpost.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shannon Watts poses for a portrait on June 4, 2019 in Boulder, Colorado. Watts founded the nationally popular activist group called Moms Demand Action that fights for gun control legislation in all 50 states. The group has created a grassroots network of nearly 6 million moms across the country who said they take on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 21:57:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}