A SAFER FUTURE
My father has always been at the forefront of my aspirations.
A conversation with
John Feinblatt, the Founder and President of Everytown for Gun Safety,
A conversation with John Feinblatt, the Founder and President of Everytown for Gun Safety
When I was a little girl, “take your daughter to work” days were frequent and coveted. I vividly remember my dad picking me up after school and heading to the bullpen at New York City Hall, where I would do my homework while he tirelessly worked. Being at the office with my dad not only meant spinning around in office chairs and enjoying the free snacks, but it also gave me a behind-the-scenes look at how he and the staffers at his non-profit organization, Everytown for Gun Safety, were working to prevent gun violence in America—a life-saving cause given that more than 110 Americans are killed with guns every day1.
My dad has always empowered me to be vocal, take action, and contribute to social justice efforts. The keys to keeping up the momentum? Patience and tenacity—qualities I’ve witnessed in my dad firsthand, ever since those “take your daughter to work” days.
I sat down with him to chat about his work with Everytown, how it’s influenced his parenting, and what a gun-safe America looks like to him.
I remember you telling me that your inspiration to create Everytown for Gun Safety was inspired by your time as New York City’s Criminal Justice Coordinator.
Can you get more specific about what drove you to create a Gun Safety Organization and how it correlated with your previous career(s)?
JF: I realized that the vast majority of guns that were being recovered in New York City were guns that were originally sold in another state—it made [former mayor] Mike Bloomberg and I understand that there needed to be a national approach to gun violence prevention and gun safety in order to keep New Yorkers safe. State borders are porous, so even though New York’s laws were good, surrounding states were not.
In my lifetime, I watched you go from only working in New York City government, to then starting Everytown and doing the two simultaneously, to then serving as Everytown’s President full-time. Would you say your continued dedication to Everytown has to do with increasing gun violence statistics?
JF: My dedication to this is the desire to save lives, and gun violence is a uniquely American problem, but there are practical, lifesaving solutions.
What are some things about working in the world of gun violence prevention that you feel often goes misunderstood in the general public?
JF: What’s most misunderstood is that gun safety laws equal confiscation. They don’t.
Do you ever feel like you’re a “target” for gun rights activists? JF: Politics is a tough business, and you have to go into it knowing that. It is not for the faint-hearted or thin-skinned.
Did you ever feel hyper-sensitive to school shootings and sending your own children off to school?
JF: Without a doubt. After Sandy Hook—where 20 kids were murdered in a Connecticut Schoolhouse—I could feel my hand hold your hand tighter as I dropped you off at school. It was raw emotion.
Your unrelenting devotion to this cause amazes and inspires me. What has been the source of your motivation these past eight years?
JF: I’ve always known this was a marathon not a sprint. There is nothing more important than saving lives, which are senselessly being lost.
As a leader who’s working from a legislative angle to make America (and the world) a safer place, despite it being an incredibly uphill battle, what advice would you give someone who wishes to do the same?
JF: Patience. Understanding that change in this country is incremental, particularly at the federal level.
If there was one bill you could pass right now, what would it be?
JF: Universal Background Checks. This means that everyone who bought a gun would have a background check. It is the foundation for all other gun safety bills. And it’s crazy that something so basic isn’t in place. It’s easier to buy a gun than to get a driver’s license.
To the people who care about gun safety, but worry about getting “too political,” what are some things they can do to still join the efforts to aid the cause?
JF: If you own a gun, make sure it is safely stored—the last thing you want is your kids discovering a gun while they are playing hide and seek. Make sure that guns in the house are safely stored when your kids have playdates or sleepovers. Wear orange during Gun Safety Week; it is a non-political way of saying, “I dont want to live in a country with 25x the gun murder rate than any other developed nation.”
“There is nothing more important than saving lives,
which are senselessly being lost.”
What has been the most—or one of the most—pivotal shifts you have seen in regards to gun violence, either in your time with Everytown or in your lifetime in general?
JF: That many states are passing gun safety legislation on a bipartisan basis. States are often the legislative laboratories.
You had your children inadvertently immersed in the world of gun violence growing up. Did you ever consider how the nature of your work might impact your children?
JF: I think that parents’ work always seeps into family life. However, the last thing I ever wanted was for my kids to be afraid. I tend to think about the positive aspects of my work— showing them the importance of being involved in making the world a better place.
You work a lot. And that is not a bad thing—I am proud to have inherited your workaholic gene—but I am curious to hear how you would describe your balance between being a father and being a pioneer in the daunting and dizzying world of gun safety advocacy and legislation?
You can’t really take a vacation from either role.
JF: As we sit here, I just shortened a work trip to make sure I was around to help you pack for college. It’s always a balance; you have to self-correct when it gets out of sync.
If there was a light at the end of the tunnel, in the sense of creating a gun-safe America, what would that world look like to you?
“I tend to think about the positive aspects of my work—showing [my kids] the importance of being involved in making
the world a better place.”
JF: There would be safer guns that only the owner could shoot. Palm Print Recognition is developing technology that recognizes the gun’s owner and can only fire with the touch of its owner. And that more people understood that, statistically, a gun in the home does not actually make you safer. It actually puts you in more danger.
Has your work ever been “too much”?
In my time working with you, I would sometimes hear a grieving mother talk about her late son and feel like it was too much to hear almost every day, but you do. Is there a moment that sticks out to you as overwhelming, or one that crosses an emotional line?
JF: When I took some of the Sandy Hook survivors to the White House. I wasn’t sure I knew how to comfort them. I wasn’t sure I knew the right thing to say.
What has been one of the most interesting things you have learned during your time working in gun safety?
JF: It’s all about the team.
If you could go back in time and give advice to the version of yourself who was beginning to create Everytown for Gun Safety, what would you tell him?
JF: I think you always have to be open to mid-course corrections. As you understand the complexity of a problem, you need to be open to incorporating new strategies. It is important to be self-reflective because you learn more from your failures than your successes. TA
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Underlying Cause of Death. A yearly average was developed using five years of the most recent available data: 2016 to 2020. Everytown For Gun Safety Support Fund.