145 CEOs Demand Congress Act On Gun Violence – Read Their Letter

“Last month I wrote an open letter to the CEO of Walmart about ending gun violence”, Andrew Ross Sorkin said, on Thursday morning.

“I got an email that day from Levis CEO Chip Bergh that it got him ‘thinking’ about what more could be done”, Sorkin continued, in a Twitter post.

Ultimately, the result was the following letter from 145 CEOs.

September 12, 2019

Dear Members of the Senate,

Our hearts are with the victims, their families and loved ones and all those affected by the tragic shootings El Paso and West Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. These families became members of a club that no one wants to join: the millions of Americans whose lives have been forever altered by gun violence.

Every day, 100 Americans are shot and killed and hundreds more are wounded. These are more than mass shootings; in recent weeks, gun violence has devastated Chicago, Canoga Park, NewportNews, Gilroy and Brooklyn, among others. This is a public health crisis that demands urgent action.

As leaders of some of America’s most respected companies and those with significant business interests in the United States, we are writing to you because we have a responsibility and obligation to stand up for the safety of our employees, customers and all Americans in the communities we serve across the country. Doing nothing on America’s gun violence crisis is simply unacceptable and it is time to stand with the American public on gun safety.

Gun violence in America is not inevitable; it’s preventable. There are steps Congress can, and must, take to prevent and reduce gun violence. We need our lawmakers to support common sense gun laws that could prevent tragedies like these.

That’s why we urge the Senate to stand with the American public and take action on gun safety by passing a bill to require background checks on all gun sales and a strong Red Flag law that would allow courts to issue life-saving extreme risk protection orders.

Background checks and Extreme Risk laws (also referred to as “Red Flag laws” ) are proven to save lives. Since Congress established the background check system 25 years ago, background checks have blocked more than 3.5 million gun sales to prohibited purchasers, including to convicted felons, domestic abusers, and people who have been involuntarily committed.

However, in the decades since, the law requiring background checks on gun sales has not been updated to reflect how people buy guns today. The Senate must follow the House’s lead by passing bipartisan legislation that would update the background checks law, helping to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them, in an effort to save lives. Background checks on all gun sales are a common -sense solution with overwhelming public support and are a critical step toward stemming the gun violence epidemic in this country.

Perpetrators of mass shootings, school shootings, and hate crimes often display warning signs before committing violent acts. Additionally, people who end their life with a gun also often show signs that they are in crisis before they act Interventions in states with Extreme Risk laws have already prevented potential tragedies. Expanding Extreme Risk laws to enable families and law enforcement nationwide to intervene when someone is at serious risk of hurting themselves or others is critical to preventing future tragedies.

These proposals are common-sense, bipartisan and widely supported by the American public. It is time for the Senate to take action.

Sincerely,

Organizations with more than 500 employees:

Brian Chesky, Co-Founder, Head of Community and CEO , Airbnb KeithMestrich, Presidentand CEO , Amalgamated Bank John Connaughton and Jonathan Lavine, Co-Managing Partners, and Josh Bekenstein and Steve Pagliuca, Co -Chairmen, Bain Capital Ethan Brown, Co-Founder and CEO , Beyond Meat Peter T. Grauer, Chairman , Bloomberg LP Ric Clark , Chairman, Brookfield Property Group Fritz Lanman, CEO , ClassPass Roger Lynch, CEO , CondéNast Ken Lin, Founder and CEO , Credit Karma Edward Stack , CEO, DICK ‘S SportingGoods Tony Xu, Co -Founder and CEO , DoorDash Doug Baker, Chairman and CEO , Ecolab Richard Edelman, President and CEO, Edelman Julia Hartz, Co-Founder and CEO , Eventbrite Art Peck, CEO ,Gap Inc. Eddy Lu, CEO GoatGroup Ben Lerer, Co -Founder and CEO, Group NineMedia Yannick Bolloré, CEO, Havas Group BillKoenigsberg, President, CEO and Founder, HorizonMedia Patrick O . Brown,MD, PhD, Founder and CEO , Impossible Foods MichaelRoth, Chairman and CEO , Interpublic Rob Frohwein, Co-Founder and CEO , and Kathryn Petralia, Co-Founder and President, Kabbage Inc. and Drum Technologies Chip Bergh, President and CEO , LeviStrauss & Co. Logan Green, Co-Founder and CEO, and John Zimmer, Co -Founder and President, Lyft Dev Ittycheria, Presidentand CEO , MongoDB, Inc. HowardMarks, Co-Chairman, Oaktree CapitalManagement Todd McKinnon, Co -Founder and CEO, Okta John Wren , Chairman and CEO , Omnicom Group Ben Silbermann, Co- Founder and CEO, Pinterest Bastian Lehmann, Co-Founder & CEO , Postmates Hamid R . Moghadam , Chairman and CEO , Prologis Arthur Sadoun, Chairman and CEO , Publicis Groupe Steve Huffman, CEO, Reddit Richard Fain , CEO , RoyalCaribbean Cruises Ltd.ScottRechler, Chairman and CEO , RXR Realty Jon Oringer, Founder and CEO , Shutterstock , . Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square and Twitter Anthony Casalena, Founder and CEO, Squarespace Zander Lurie, CEO, SurveyMonkey AriannaHuffington, Founder and CEO , Thrive Global Blake Mycoskie, Founder and Chief Shoe Giver, and Jim Alling, CEO , TOMS Jeff Lawson, Co-Founderand CEO Twilio DaraKhosrowshahi, CEO , Uber Mark Read CEO, WPP JeremyStoppelman, Co-Founder and CEO, Yelp

Organizations with fewer than 500 employees:

Kevin P . Ryan , Founder and CEO , AlleyCorp Travis Truett, Co-Founder and CEO , Ambition John W . Rogers, Jr., Founder , Chairman and Co -CEO , and Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO & President, Ariel Investments , LLC Mike Steib , CEO , Artsy Sean Knapp, Co-Founder and CEO , Ascend Andrei Cherny , Co -Founder and CEO , Aspiration Abdur Chowdhury , CEO , Aura Fahim M . Aziz , Founder and CEO , Backpack Abrams, Chairman and Co-CEO, and Katie McGrath , Co-CEO Bad Robot Ari Paparo , CEO , BeeswaxIO Corporation Ryan Block , Co -Founder, Begin John Borthwick , Founder and CEO , Betaworks Raphael Crawford -Marks, Co -Founder and CEO , Bonusly Darren Lachtman , Co-Founder , Brat Trevor McFedries , CEO , Brud Sameer Shariff, Co -Founder , Cambly Analisa Goodin , Founder and CEO, Catch & Release , Inc. Andrew Feldman , Founder and CEO , Cerebras Systems George Favvas, CEO , Circle Medical Alex MacCaw , CEO , Clearbit Tyler Bosmeny , CEO , Clever MattMartin , Co-Founder and CEO , Clockwise Othman Laraki, Co -Founder and CEO Color Genomics Jager McConnell, CEO , Crunchbase , Inc. Apu Gupta , Co-Founder and CEO , Curalate , Inc . David Oates , Co-Founder and CEO, Curtsy Brian Ree , Founder and CEO , DAILYLOOK Saurabh Ladha, CEO , Doxel, Inc. Andy Coravos , Co -Founder and CEO , Elektra Labs Laurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective Pradeep Elankumaran , Co-Founder & CEO Farmstead Desiree Gruber , CEO , Full Picture Jared Hecht, Founder and CEO , Fundera JudeGomila , Founder and CEO , Golden Rick Nucci, Co-Founder and CEO , Guru Kara Goldin , Founder and CEO , Hint, Inc. Jeff Sellinger, Co -Founder and CEO , HipDot Prerna Gupta , CEO , Hooked Cyrus Massoumi,Managing Partner, humbition Kristin Savilia , CEO , JOOR Pierre Valade , CEO , Jumbo Privacy William Martino, Founder and CEO , Kadena Jake Perlman -Garr, CEO , Kanga Warren Shaeffer, Co-Founder and CEO , Knowable Jack Altman , CEO Lattice Aaron N . Block , Co-Founder and Managing Director,MetaProp . Afton Vechery , Co-Founder and CEO ,Modern Fertility Dan Parham , Founder and CEO , and Tee Parham , Founder and CTO Neighborland Shafqat Islam , CEO , NewsCred Sarah Friar, CEO , Nextdoor Athan Stephanopoulos , President, NowThis Varsha Rao, CEO , Nurx William E . Oberndorf, Chairman , Oberndorf Enterprises Steven Rosenblatt , Co-Founder andGeneral Partner, Oceans Nick Huzar, Co-Founder and CEO , OfferUp James Segil , Co -Founder and President, Openpath Jordan Husney , CEO , Parabol Doug Aley, CEO , Paravision John Milinovich , CEO , Plato Design Rajat Suri, CEO , Presto Christopher Gavigan , Founder and CEO , Prima Adam Regelmann , Founder and COO , Quartzy Nate Maslak , Co-Founder and CEO , andNate Fox, Co-Founder and CTO , Ribbon Health Zachariah Reitano, Co-Founder and CEO , Ro Gary Beasley , Co-Founder and CEO , Roofstock Stephen Ehikian , Co -Founder and CEO , Ruist Brian Schechter, CEO , SelfMade Olga Vidisheva , Founder and CEO , Shoptiques Inc. Dan Doctoroff , CEO , Sidewalk Labs Jason Tan, CEO , Sift Matt Cooper , CEO , Skillshare Grant Jordan , CEO , SkySafe Josh Guttman , Co- Founder and CEO and Florent Peyre, Co-Founder and President , Small Door Michael Carvin , Co Founder and CEO SmartAsset Aaron King, Founder and CEO , Snapdocs , Inc. Neil Capel, CEO , Solve. io Ben Hindman , Co-Founder and CEO , Splash Evan Beard , Founder and CEO Standard Bots Stanlee R . Gatti, Founder, Stanlee R . Gatti Designs Bradford Oberwager, CEO , Sundia Corporation Ross Feinstein , CEO , Sunlight Health Paul Budnitz , CEO , Superplastic Ron Conway , Founder , SV Angel HeidiZak, Co-Founder and Co-CEO , and David Spector, Co-Founder and Co- CEO ThirdLove Yashar Nejati, CEO , thisopenspace inc . Joshua Kushner , Founder and Managing Partner, Thrive Capital Chris Wang, CEO , ThunderCore Inc. Corbett Kull, CEO , Tillable Meghan Jewitt, CEO , Uniform Teeth Nicholas Goldner , Co- Founder and CEO , and Christopher Bulow , Co-Founder and COO Viosera Therapeutics Ken Chong, CEO Virtual Kitchen Co Irv Remedios, CEO , Voxer Oliver Cameron , Co-Founder and CEO Voyage Chase Adam , Co-Founder and CEO , and Grace Garey , Co-Founder and COO , Watsi Liz Wessel , Co-Founder and CEO , WayUp NeilWaller, CEO , Whalar Bismarck Lepe, CEO , Wizeline Dennis R . Mortensen , Founder and CEO , x .ai, inc. Geoff Ralston, President, Y Combinator Shan -Lyn Ma, Co -Founder and CEO Zola