The Bloomberg-backed group Everytown for Gun Safety will hold a protest on Thursday in Washington, D.C., calling for stricter gun control and attacking the National Rifle Association (NRA).
"[Congress has] been gone for the last month of a summer that has destroyed American lives—in churches, movie theaters, military recruitment centers, workplaces and homes," said Isaac Bloom, deputy national organizing director for Everytown, announced in an email last week. "It's left Americans like you and me fed up and ready to do whatever it takes to stop the violence. So when Congress comes back next week, we'll be there waiting for them."
The protest is scheduled for Thursday morning in front of the U.S. Capitol Building. Everytown said the event would feature "gun violence survivors and gun sense elected officials." The group said its goal is to "occupy the Capitol and demand Congress change gun laws."
Everytown accused Congress of catering to the NRA and ignoring the American people. "Because it's time to pass stronger gun laws and end the senseless killing," the group said in the email. "It's time for our elected officials to stop catering to the NRA and listen to the American people."
When asked about the event, NRA spokesperson Lars Dalseide said most Americans agreed with the gun rights organization. "Recent polling shows that a majority of Americans oppose more gun control," he said. "The NRA’s strength lies in that fact that our five million dues-paying members and our tens of millions of supporters vote and those are the people elected officials listen to—the voters."
Everytown promised to "flood the Capitol grounds with gun sense supporters," and said that the protest would be "massive" in the email.