The Big Five Gun Control Groups
Everytown for Gun Safety | Giffords
March for Our Lives | Final Thoughts
March for Our Lives
Of all the major gun control advocacy groups in the United States, March for Our Lives has gone the furthest in embracing an intersectional “Everything Leftist” approach to its activism. It was co-founded by David Hogg, a survivor of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Although he remains on the group’s board of directors, in early 2025 Hogg was elected as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, where he has stirred considerable controversy for backing primary challenges to sitting Democratic Party elected officials. Separately, March for Our Lives announced in March 2025 that it was laying off most of its full-time staff and naming a new executive director, who explained that the group was “facing financial challenges as an organization.” It remains to be seen how this will impact the group going forward.
March for Our Lives situates its support for strict gun control measures within a broader left-wing political framework and public policy agenda. For instance, while it calls for the creation of a government licensing system for firearms and ammunition possession, it qualifies this with a caveat that any such database “should be built with special attention toward equity and in consultation with communities historically targeted by the racist and anti-Black mechanisms that pervade regulatory and criminal legal systems.” In the group’s words:
Our mission calls for something bolder and more transformative than gun safety alone. We call for a world re-imagined: a world where oppressive power structures are abandoned, community is embraced—a world where all human needs are met, and the love of people is centered.
March for Our Lives criticizes American society for putting “guns on a pedestal” and allegedly prioritizing “access to firearms over access to human needs.” It claims that “white supremacy and patriarchy” are being perpetuated through “armed supremacy” and “the use of guns and the threat of gun violence to reinforce power structures, hierarchies, and status.” The group asserts that communities with high rates of gun violence “have been intentionally impoverished” by the government. It also believes that the criminal justice system is “brutally violent and discriminatory” and that “the size and scope of policing” should be reduced. Its comprehensive policy agenda calls for everything from eliminating voter ID laws to universal health care.
Major organizational funders of the 501(c)(3) March for Our Lives Foundation from 2022 to 2023 included the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund ($854,240), Donor Advised Charitable Giving ($536,251), the Joyce Foundation ($250,000), the Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($110,750), the Hobson Lucas Family Foundation ($100,000), and the 128 Collective Foundation ($100,000). Notably, over that same two-year period the March for Our Lives Foundation passed along a total of $3,621,656 to its affiliated 501(c)(4) March for Our Lives Action Fund—accounting for a full third of the latter’s total revenue during that time. Other funders of the March for Our Lives Action Fund have included the Open Society Action Fund ($150,000 in 2022) and the National Education Association ($100,000 in 2022).
Sandy Hook Promise
Established by family members of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Sandy Hook Promise is somewhat distinct from the other four groups. While it may fairly be considered a gun control group—it advocates for restrictions on “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines, passing red flag laws and expanded background checks, requiring the secure storage of firearms, and new limits on gun-related marketing—Sandy Hook Promise also places much programmatic emphasis on social, interpersonal, and mental health initiatives designed to prevent violence independent of gun laws. For example, its Start With Hello program encourages outreach to school children who may be suffering from social isolation, and its Say Something program encourages students to report signs of a potential threat to trusted adults.
Notable organizational funders of the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation over the two-year period from 2022 to 2023 included the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund ($2,051,595), Donor Advised Charitable Giving ($1,535,104), the American Online Giving Foundation ($889,472), the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation ($750,000), the National Philanthropic Trust ($513,277), the Marin Community Foundation ($505,000), and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($467,900).
In the next installment, while five groups dominate the national landscape of nonprofit gun control activism, dozens of other groups are active.
