29 min
A Lesson on Doubling Down with Shannon Watts Voice Lessons Podcast
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- Society & Culture
Shannon Watts was a stay-at-home mom folding laundry when she heard the news of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. It was at that moment that Shannon decided to get off the sidelines and encourage other women to join her, starting the largest grassroots movement in the country, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Shannon and her army of mothers (and others) have bravely gone up against the gun lobby, proving that when you “fight like a mother” you can do anything you set your mind to. In this “Lesson on Doubling Down”, we talk about the business of building a movement.
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: How and why Shannon started Mom’s Demand Action (MDA).
How the organization dealt with the rapid growth of the movement. *As of 2018, Moms Demand Action had 761 local groups and 6 million supporters.
Every mom is already a multi-tasking organizer.
Movements are like startups.
The three things MDA focuses on that they believe will save the most lives.
Stand Your Ground is a gun law that is rooted in racism.
Gun violence affects everyone.
Dealing with criticism.
Using your losses to fuel motivation.
How to create a revolution in our current system and doubling down instead of backing down.
A major moment with Starbucks and Howard Schultz when Shannon trusted her gut.
How women lead differently in activism and political efforts.
Women lead with their maternal strengths.
Women are a political asset but they are scared to jump in.
Shannon’s spiritual practice.
How women with big visions can take the first step.
#LESSONUP: (5:01) I think that was a moment in America when so many people wanted to get involved in 2018 and we tripled in size as an organization and k have kept growing ever since. And we're actually larger now than the NRA.
(5:25) We have over 375,000 donors now. And so that has enabled us to outspend the NRA in the last two election cycles.
(7:30) I’ve been really focused myself on Ahmaud Arbery the last few days and the stand your ground laws that have made it possible for private citizens to be vigilantes. And I'm curious if those laws will come into focus for you guys at all. And if you know the statistics on keeping people safe by focusing on repealing those.
Yes. So I mean, we're still learning all the facts, but it sounds like one of the three DA's who the case was passed on to before arrests were made, was somehow claiming that, citizens arrest laws, open carry laws and even stand your ground laws, made these two white men within their rights to pursue and shoot Ahmaud Arbery. And you know, these laws are rooted in racism, especially stand your ground. We know they disproportionately impact people of color and too often they're used by white people to shoot and kill and ask questions later. So we fight these laws everywhere they come up and we work to roll them back where we can.
(9:00) The bigger picture is that too much gun violence in this country impacts people of color, particularly black men and boys. And you really cannot talk about gun violence without talking about the systemic racism that causes it.
(10:45) I think it's incumbent on our organization to involve all white women, Republican and Democrat alike to speak out and to get off the sidelines and to not just care about the school shootings and the mass shootings, which frankly are only about 1% of the gun violence in this country, but to care about the gun suicides and the gun homicides that happen in rural America and in city centers. And that's what we've done. We have been very committed to diversity, equality, and inclusion efforts internally as an organization and externally. And it is incumbent upon us to continue to learn and to listen and to hold up the work that others have done for decades.
(11:06) Black women have been putting their literal bodies on street corners to stop bullets where they live and, and really their wo
Shannon Watts was a stay-at-home mom folding laundry when she heard the news of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. It was at that moment that Shannon decided to get off the sidelines and encourage other women to join her, starting the largest grassroots movement in the country, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Shannon and her army of mothers (and others) have bravely gone up against the gun lobby, proving that when you “fight like a mother” you can do anything you set your mind to. In this “Lesson on Doubling Down”, we talk about the business of building a movement.
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: How and why Shannon started Mom’s Demand Action (MDA).
How the organization dealt with the rapid growth of the movement. *As of 2018, Moms Demand Action had 761 local groups and 6 million supporters.
Every mom is already a multi-tasking organizer.
Movements are like startups.
The three things MDA focuses on that they believe will save the most lives.
Stand Your Ground is a gun law that is rooted in racism.
Gun violence affects everyone.
Dealing with criticism.
Using your losses to fuel motivation.
How to create a revolution in our current system and doubling down instead of backing down.
A major moment with Starbucks and Howard Schultz when Shannon trusted her gut.
How women lead differently in activism and political efforts.
Women lead with their maternal strengths.
Women are a political asset but they are scared to jump in.
Shannon’s spiritual practice.
How women with big visions can take the first step.
#LESSONUP: (5:01) I think that was a moment in America when so many people wanted to get involved in 2018 and we tripled in size as an organization and k have kept growing ever since. And we're actually larger now than the NRA.
(5:25) We have over 375,000 donors now. And so that has enabled us to outspend the NRA in the last two election cycles.
(7:30) I’ve been really focused myself on Ahmaud Arbery the last few days and the stand your ground laws that have made it possible for private citizens to be vigilantes. And I'm curious if those laws will come into focus for you guys at all. And if you know the statistics on keeping people safe by focusing on repealing those.
Yes. So I mean, we're still learning all the facts, but it sounds like one of the three DA's who the case was passed on to before arrests were made, was somehow claiming that, citizens arrest laws, open carry laws and even stand your ground laws, made these two white men within their rights to pursue and shoot Ahmaud Arbery. And you know, these laws are rooted in racism, especially stand your ground. We know they disproportionately impact people of color and too often they're used by white people to shoot and kill and ask questions later. So we fight these laws everywhere they come up and we work to roll them back where we can.
(9:00) The bigger picture is that too much gun violence in this country impacts people of color, particularly black men and boys. And you really cannot talk about gun violence without talking about the systemic racism that causes it.
(10:45) I think it's incumbent on our organization to involve all white women, Republican and Democrat alike to speak out and to get off the sidelines and to not just care about the school shootings and the mass shootings, which frankly are only about 1% of the gun violence in this country, but to care about the gun suicides and the gun homicides that happen in rural America and in city centers. And that's what we've done. We have been very committed to diversity, equality, and inclusion efforts internally as an organization and externally. And it is incumbent upon us to continue to learn and to listen and to hold up the work that others have done for decades.
(11:06) Black women have been putting their literal bodies on street corners to stop bullets where they live and, and really their wo
29 min