44. Can our money help with gun violence?

Welcome to Spend Donate Invest. This is a podcast where you’ll find short episodes about how we might use our money in realistic ways that line up with our personal values and the type of world you’d like to help create. Maybe your thing is climate change. Maybe it’s poverty. Maybe it’s the gender pay gap. Maybe it’s reproductive freedom. You can choose your own values, the idea here is that you will get some suggestions on lining up your money and your values. We talk about where you shop, where you’re investing, and even where you keep your cash. Today someone wrote in about how we might use our money in response to gun violence in our country. You can send in whatever question you’ve been thinking about. I’d love to chat about it, and share some resources that might send you in the right direction to achieve the world that you think should exist.

I’ve heard from listeners that listen with their children, and there isn’t any adult language in today’s episode, but the topic might not be right for your kids, depending on their age. So listen on your own first and then decide.

Here’s this week’s letter:
When I was growing up, I knew a few friend’s dads that had guns, but they were old hunting rifles that had been passed down. This was out in the country, so hunting deer was just what some of them did for fun. I don’t know when it happened but it seems like our country has been flooded with guns meant to harm people. I’m really concerned about this. I’ve heard you talk about climate change and poverty and homelessness on your show, but I’ve never heard you talk about guns. What do you think? Can our money help with gun violence?

Thanks to the listener that sent in this question. Money is very much behind the gun problem in America. Most Americans do support more gun regulation but politicians just aren’t trying to go there, and it comes down to the huge financial donations that they are getting from the gun lobby.

Like a lot of us, I started following the kids who survived the Parkland Florida school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. They organized quickly and started to use their voices to demand change. March for Our Lives was founded and they have been organizing since then, for the past 4 years. I’m going to include their link in the show notes, they are at Marchforourlives.com but they are always raising money and they do a lot of different things with it. For example, they have registered a LOT of voters, including a lot of young voters. They have organized demonstrations for sure, with the largest ever gun violence protest ever in US history. And lately I have seen that they are advancing the conversation to take a step back and to look at gun violence holistically in America. They are talking about decentralizing whiteness in the discussion about gun violence. They are talking about diverting resources towards the students who are fighting gun violence in the black, latinx, indigenous communities. In other words, communities where when gun violence happens there, it isn’t typically reported as unexpected or unacceptable. So that’s a group you could think about supporting financially.

There are other organizations. For example Guns Down America. This was started by a guy named Igor Volsky, he worked at the Center for American Progress. It is a think tank that was founded about 20 years ago in response to the right wing groups like the Heritage Foundation which has had a lot of influence in American politics for decades. Anyway he worked there before he founded Guns Down America and they have a very different approach than the March for Our Lives group we just talked about a few minutes ago. Guns Down America view seems to be this: most Americans support gun reform, so we need to find specific ways to hold politicians accountable. In the past they have chosen very specific strategies for example getting Walmart to sell fewer guns. Or ending NRA’s insurance program. This is crazy, you said you grew up at least somewhat exposed to gun culture so maybe you already know about this, but the NRA partnered with insurance companies to provide what Guns Down America calls “murder insurance” for gun owners who say they shot someone for self defense. You know, the “stand your ground” type of arguments. Guns Down America put pressure on the insurance companies that partnered with the NRA for this and it seems they were effective. On this show we talk about our money and how we want it to be used in line with our values. Guns Down America has studied the largest banks in our country to see how much business they are doing with the NRA and it’s lobbyists. You can look at the scores for your bank at isyourbankloaded.org of course I’ll include the link in the show notes. The highest scoring bank is Citi, they scored a B. They don’t finance the NRA. They have made some decisions to a policy about not engaging with the gun industry. However, they have provided money to some NRA backed lawmakers. On the other end of the spectrum, of course is Wells Fargo. I’m saying of course because if you heard episode 30 about how to evaluate whether your bank lines up with your values, Wells Fargo was flagged there too. If you look at this Guns Down America evaluation, they are scoring Wells Fargo at an F because they have provided $471 million dollars in financing for the gun industry. I’m going to say that again- Wells Fargo has provided half a Billion dollars in financing for the gun industry. Billion with a “B.” They have also supported top NRA backed lawmakers with their own money as well. So that’s sort of the approach that Guns Down America tends to take. They choose something very specific that they are trying to change, usually tied to money. The NRA murder insurance, the banks financing the gun industry. Walmart selling guns. And then they focus on those specific items. So that could be another option if you’re looking to put money into that organization. Or you could switch banks if you look up your banks score on isyourbankloaded.org is higher than you’d like.

Here’s a third one, it is called Sandy Hook Promise. This one was started by a couple of parents of kids who were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It seems that their main focus is educating kids and parents to know the signs to prevent violence. I’m going to link their site as well, it is sandyhookpromise.org

So already you are seeing a few different approaches to this movement against gun violence in America. And I’m sure there are more. In today’s episode there have been some glaring omissions. When we talk about gun violence, it’s important to know what we’re talking about. Half of gun deaths come from suicide. We have not even discussed this today. When we talk about non-suicide shootings, in the US more than 360 people are shot every day and survive at least long enough to make it to the hospital. 360 people a day. Every day. In a week that’s well over 2,000 people getting shot in America and surviving. People of color are way over-represented in the number of people killed by guns every year in America. I’m going to include a report on the link between Intimate partner violence and guns in America. SIGH. I’m not going to sit here and pretend the reason we haven’t changed our gun culture and policies is because of a lack of data, but I do think that data is important, and if that’s something you want to fund, you could also consider going at the problem that way.

So. Those are some ways to think about the intersection of our money and the guns in America. To recap, the cash we have sitting in our checking and savings accounts are sometimes being used to finance the gun industry- you could consider changing banks. You can also consider donating to organizations that are fighting the gun violence epidemic in very different ways. We talked about some groups that are organizing voter registration drives, educational campaigns, some policy groups, you could also look at suicide prevention groups, intimate partner prevention groups. There are so many opportunities to help. After all, what’s the alternative? We’re not going to give up! This is too important.

Thanks for joining for today’s discussion. Today’s question was about our money and guns, but you might have a different question. Maybe you’ve been thinking about your investments, or how you’ve been shopping. Or something else entirely about our money and our values. Feel free to drop a note and you just might hear an episode about it soon. You can email the show at spenddonateinvest@gmail.com I’ll include that address in the show notes. There’s a very easy to scroll website for the show at spenddonateinvest.world check it out. Please share this episode with someone else who is looking for ways to fight the gun violence epidemic in America. Thanks to those of you who left reviews for the show! And the buymeacoffee link is still up. This is a website, it’s kind of like patreon, where you can chip in the cost of a coffee. In my case, it will go towards getting a microphone and paying for the website hosting and for an audio engineer to make sure the audio actually sounds good. So that’s it for today, let’s talk again soon.

https://www.gunsdownamerica.org/
https://isyourbankloaded.org/
https://marchforourlives.com/
https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/arms-control/gun-violence/
https://everytownresearch.org/report/guns-and-violence-against-women-americas-uniquely-lethal-intimate-partner-violence-problem/