Don’t just take a knee.
Here’s a very specific way to support the Black Lives Matter movement: Contact your senators & Congressional representatives and tell them to close the “Charleston Loophole.”
Five years ago, a white shooter killed eight people at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Rev. Sharon Risher’s mother, two cousins, and her childhood friend were among the victims.
Excerpt from Risher’s letter, via the Everytown Survivor Network:
“But the shooter who ended my mother’s life should not have been able to purchase a gun in the first place. He was prohibited from buying a gun and should have been stopped in his tracks by the background check he couldn’t pass. But because of an NRA-backed loophole that allows a gun sale to go forward when a background check takes longer than three business days, he was able to buy one anyway. The rest is tragic history, and the loophole is now named the “Charleston loophole” after my hometown.
Like so many of the problems that kill Black people in America, the Charleston loophole has gone unaddressed—even as the other victims’ families and I have continually called out for action. This inaction continues even though the loophole has likely become deadlier during the pandemic; a surge in gun sales has overwhelmed our background check system and made it likelier than ever that background checks will take longer than three business days.”