We have just released the third episode of our video series, Commonsense Conversations, where each week CEO, of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, Renee Hopkins is joined by our partners, legislative leaders, issue experts, and community members to talk about gun violence and the work being done to prevent it. On this week’s episode of Commonsense Conversations, Renee met with Representative Javier Valdez and Senator Marko Liias to discuss legislation restricting access to high-capacity magazines. High capacity magazines make shootings much more fatal: The greatest predictor of a state’s mass shooting rate is whether or not it restricts access to high-capacity magazines.

Both Representative Valdez and Senator Liias are leading the fight in the Washington State Legislature to restrict access to high-capacity magazines. “In every mass shooting, [high capacity magazines] have been a common theme… that allow more damage, more loss of life, and more violence,” Senator Liias shares. Representative Valdez adds that, “Our public has gotten to the point where they are tired of turning on the news and seeing another mass shooting that has happened, and it’s time for us to act.” Representative Valdez and Senator Liias share that the best thing advocates can do to ensure that legislation limiting high-capacity magazines moves forward is to contact their legislators to show them how important it is that this legislation is put into effect.

We hope that Commonsense Conversations will be an engaging and informative way for our community to learn more about our work and how you can get involved. We’ll host as many as possible through Facebook Live on the Alliance for Gun Responsibility page. You can also access an audio version here if you are feeling a little video’d out. Keep an eye out for new episodes and you can see ALL of our episodes here!

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–Samantha Eden is the Legislative Organizing Fellow at the Alliance