Action Alerts

“We embrace the pain of the mothers and fathers in the United States who have lost children to gun violence, because my own son was disappeared in Michoacán with a firearm,” said Araceli Rodríguez, mother of Luis Ángel León Rodríguez in a statement from Mexico’s Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD).  Just like parents who lost children in the horrific Newtown shooting, victims across Mexico who have lost their sons and daughters to gun violence are calling for action to prevent future tragedies.

What can you do? Join us and call your members of Congress on Monday, February 4th!

Today, President Obama unveiled an expansive plan to tackle gun violence.  For so many of us focused on ending the bloodshed that has devastated communities on both sides of the border, this is encouraging news.

We wanted to THANK YOU for adding YOUR voice to the groundswell calling for an end to gun violence.  Earlier this week, the petition that many of you signed urging President Obama to better enforce and tighten lax U.S. gun laws that traffickers exploit to get guns and smuggle them into Mexico was delivered to Vice President Biden’s task force on gun violence .  As you may recall, this is the same petition initiated by groups from Mexico’s Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity in partnership with LAWG and dozens of faith-based, human rights and anti-gun violence groups from both sides of the border. 

We were proud to join with YOU and so many partners and allies in hosting Mexico’s Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity here in our nation’s capitol last month.  Highlights of their 3-day stop in Washington, D.C. included a TV-camera crowded press conference on the steps of a Capitol Hill church and a ‘lobby day’ where teams of victims and advocates deployed all over Capitol Hill to tell their stories to individual members and congressional aides. The historic visit ended with a moving vigil and march through Columbia Heights to a final event in Malcolm X Park, a dramatic poetry reading by the Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, whose reaction to his son’s murder sparked the movement, and a stirring speech by the legendary farmworker union leader, Dolores Huerta. 

Last month, the tragic shooting in Colorado horrified the nation. Did you know that the AR-15 type guns used in the Colorado shooting have been found at many violent crime scenes in Mexico – and that many of these weapons have been traced to the United States?  Check out this short video to learn how these guns are trafficked to Mexico, who profits, and what President Obama can do to help STOP the violence in Mexico.



Watch the video and TAKE ACTION to urge President Obama to act now to stop gun trafficking into Mexico!