Ep. 393 — Shannon Watts
The Axe Files with David Axelrod
CNN
4.6 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 2 July 2020
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action, an advocacy group dedicated to ending gun violence. She joins David to talk about how she became an unlikely founder of a grassroots organization with millions of supporters, the increased demand for guns amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and how the NRA has faltered during the Trump administration.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Music |
| 0:06.0 | And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files, with |
| 0:12.5 | your host David Axelrod. |
| 0:14.5 | Music |
| 0:20.0 | There's a lot of discussion today about the power of activism. |
| 0:23.6 | So Shannon Watts is a living example of it. |
| 0:26.1 | In reaction to the Newtown Massacre of 2012, she started an organization called Mom's |
| 0:32.2 | Demand Action on her Facebook page. |
| 0:35.0 | It's now 6 million strong, a counterpoint to the NRA, a force in American politics, and |
| 0:41.6 | a lever that has changed policy in states and municipalities all over this country. |
| 0:48.0 | I sat down with Shannon Watts this week to talk about her life, her journey, the movement |
| 0:53.1 | she leads, and where we stand on the gun issue today. |
| 1:00.1 | Shannon Watts so good to see you, prefer to do these things across the table, but this |
| 1:09.0 | is the new norm, zooms. |
| 1:11.3 | So very happy to see you today. |
| 1:14.2 | You lead this movement that you help create, that you really created. |
| 1:19.0 | I have 5 million followers, 300,000 active volunteers. |
| 1:26.0 | But interestingly, you grew up in upstate New York, and you grew up in a family where |
| 1:31.6 | guns were prevalent. |
| 1:33.2 | I did. |
| 1:34.2 | You know, both of my grandfather's were World War II veterans. |
| 1:39.0 | Both avid hunters, both gun owners. |
... |
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