In the wake of yet another mass shooting, this time at the Louisiana screening of Amy Schumer's latest film Trainwreck, Georgetown student and outspoken gun activist Sarah Clements penned an eloquent open letter to the famously assertive comedian. In the letter, she addressed the problem of gun violence in America and how women are disproportionately victimized by the easy availability of guns.
She dropped some shocking stats to back up her claims:
"Women in our country are 11 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than women in other high-income countries. And from 2001 through 2012, 6,410 women were murdered in the United States by an intimate partner using a gun — more than the total number of U.S. troops killed in action during the entirety of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined."
She points out, though, that women are pushing the cause of protecting their families and neighborhoods. Women are out there campaigning to end gun violence despite constant harassment from extremist, pro-gun activists. Among these women are Amy Schumer's peers, Sarah Silverman and Kristen Schaal. Now, says Clements, it's Schumer's turn to join the movement.
Though Schumer has taken some action to point out how broken our gun control system is (who could forget her clever fake birth control ad satirizing how difficult it can be for women to get access to the pill while getting a gun is hardly an ordeal), Clements closed her letter with a direct request for even more action: "Write an op-ed. Support an organization. Demand change. Be a voice for our generation and for women — two groups who make up most of the victims of the gun violence in our country."
Soon after Clements began sharing the article on social media, Schumer had a response for her.
