March For Our Lives Calls on the New Congress to Use Its Majority to Protect Young Lives

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2026
Media Contact: press@marchforourlives.com

MFOL Urges Lawmakers to Expand Background Checks, Fund Community Violence Intervention, and Investigate the Trump Administration’s Rollback of Gun Safety Protections

WASHINGTON — March For Our Lives, the nation’s leading youth-led gun safety organization, today called on the incoming Congress to use its new majority in both chambers to treat gun violence prevention as an urgent, ongoing priority.

In 2024, guns were the leading cause of death for children and teens ages 1 to 17 for the fifth straight year. Yet since January 2025, the Trump administration has slashed funding for gun violence prevention programs and research, and it has proposed rolling back federal gun rules.

Young people helped deliver this new majority, backing Democratic candidates at historic levels. And where gun safety was directly on the ballot, voters held the line: Massachusetts voters chose to keep the state’s 2024 gun safety law by a vote of two to one, rejecting a repeal campaign from gun rights groups. March For Our Lives was a national partner of the Yes on 9 campaign to protect it.

“I survived the shooting at my high school, and my generation grew up practicing lockdown drills. On Tuesday, we showed up. Voters have handed this Congress the power to act on gun violence. We expect lawmakers to expand background checks to all gun sales, invest in proven community violence intervention programs, and investigate the gun industry’s influence over federal enforcement. Congress must use hearings and subpoenas to demand answers about the weakening of ATF and the rollback of gun safety protections. This majority needs to use its power to protect our lives,” said Jaclyn Corin, Executive Director of March For Our Lives and Parkland survivor.

Specifically, March For Our Lives is calling on the new Congress to:

  • Require background checks on all gun sales and pass red flag laws. ATF has instead proposed letting dealers ship guns directly to buyers’ homes in the same state, skipping the in-person check at a gun store. Even the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s own trade group, warned that the rule would be exploited for illegal straw purchases.
  • Invest in proven community violence intervention programs. The Justice Department’s community violence intervention initiative has lost $150 million, which was steered to law enforcement, according to the former Justice Department official who oversaw it. She said many groups doing this work have cut services, laid off staff, or closed.
  • Investigate the gun industry’s influence over federal enforcement. When the Justice Department unveiled nearly three dozen proposed ATF rollbacks in April, representatives from the gun industry’s most prominent trade groups stood behind the podium and cheered.
  • Use oversight, hearings, and subpoenas to demand answers on the weakening of ATF and the rollback of federal gun safety protections. Earlier this year, the Justice Department quietly restored gun rights to 22 people who had lost them over felonies, indictments, or other convictions. It is now reviving a program dormant since 1992 that it says could draw as many as 1 million applications a year.

Throughout the year, March For Our Lives took the fight against gun violence to audiences far beyond its own, showing up in the moments people were already paying attention to and the moments that demanded a response. It released PSAs after shootings and around big yearly traditions like the Fourth of July and Halloween, unveiled the Bulletproof Dress during Met Gala week, and handed out its “America’s #1” jersey at the World Cup. It also made space for survivors to share their stories in their own words, so audiences could hear directly from the people who know the cost of gun violence firsthand. Across all of its content so far this year, the organization has earned more than 50 million impressions and reached more than 13 million accounts on social media.

“Most people won’t go looking for a conversation about gun violence, so we started it where they already were: their feeds,” said Sam Schmir, Associate Director of Communications & Digital at March For Our Lives. “That’s how we reached people who’d never followed us or seen gun violence as their issue, and we kept our youth voice the whole way. We went toe to toe with the NRA online and never softened our message to make the gun lobby comfortable. The election is over, but we’re not logging off.

March For Our Lives will hold every member of this Congress accountable from day one, and is giving young people the tools to organize. They did their part on Tuesday. Now it’s Congress’s turn.

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