Julianne Moore Pens Essay About Gun Control

With the upcoming presidential election this year, a lot of big issues are at the forefront of many people's minds, and gun control is one of them. A candidate's opinion on how easy it should be to obtain a gun (or if they should be legal at all) is an important factor in deciding who to vote for. And now, a certain Mockingjay actor is throwing her two cents in. In this week's edition of Lenny Letter, Julianne Moore penned an essay about gun violence, and the importance of putting a stop to it before there's yet another tragedy like what happened in Newtown in December 2012 (and many times since). Although the fact that America needs to do a better job at protecting its citizens against this violence is definitely not news to anyone, Moore makes a lot of really important points that might help open people's eyes to how serious the problem really is — especially for women.

In her essay, Moore writes about what it was like to explain the Sandy Hook shooting to her daughter, who was 10 years old at the time, and the disturbing things she learned about the fight for stricter gun control. According to the statistics Moore cites from gun safety organization Everytown, not only are about 91 people killed with guns each day on average, but women are 11 times more likely to be murdered by gun in America than in any other developed country. And what's even scarier is that 52 percent of those deaths can be attributed to domestic violence.

Moore wrote:

... our weak gun-safety laws allow guns to end up in the hands of dangerous people. Roughly 40 percent of firearms in the United States are acquired without a background check, so criminals can obtain weapons they shouldn’t have. For example, there is a huge loophole in the federal background-check law that allows abusive boyfriends and stalkers to buy a gun. Studies show that when there’s a gun in a home where domestic violence has occurred, the chance that one partner will be killed increases by 20 times.

As someone who considers herself reasonably educated on how dangerous guns can be, I'm still surprised by these statistics, but I feel like that shouldn't be the case. Guns are dangerous; it's not a very shocking truth. But they're increasingly dangerous to women, and these facts are staggering. Why aren't more people talking about this? Why aren't more women trying to stop this — if not for the safety of others, then their own?

Fortunately, if hearing about these statistics made you want to get more involved, there are easy ways to find out how to stand up to gun violence. Not only does Moore call for action by encouraging people to join Everytown's movement, but she also mentions a really awesome website, Singled Out, which focuses specifically on how this violence affects women. It's an awesome source of information if you want to learn more, and it even gives well-thought-out, factually sound arguments to use in response to the men in your life who may feel like gun ownership is an absolute necessity.

"We need you to continue to turn the tide on gun violence," Moore adds. "And I know that we can do it together. I don’t ever want to have to explain another Newtown to my kids, and neither should you."

As women, we need to be armed with facts like these so we can keep it from happening to more women in the future. It's awesome that Moore has decided to speak out about something as important as this, and hopefully, it will be the catalyst for more discussion about what needs to change in the current situation surrounding gun control as the election in November gets closer.