Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action and gun reform activist

Hey everybody, hope you're having a great Thursday and are ready to get a chance to listen to Shannon Watts from Mom's Demand Action who's going to be our guest today and also hope that you're lining up your questions. Hey Jack, Material Guy, everyone else who just joined, good to see you there. Material Guy, do you prefer to go by Material Guy or Wesley? People want to know, let us know. There's a question button right there, you press that, you're able to enter a question. If it's a good question, I will ask it of Shannon Watts when she joins the show in just a little bit. I see Jennifer who's super excited for the show today. I see Taylor. Let me post this and pin this real quick. Yeah, that's Steely Dan. Good job 41SMC. Not always the biggest Steely Dan fan but that's what the fox was playing today. I see Jody Casey who is our local Mom's Demand chapter president. Amy's a member of that chapter and Jody, thanks for being on. Glad to see you here. A couple of quick thoughts and then if we've ever been excited for a guest, it's today and so I want to make sure that we make as much time available to listen to Shannon to have her answer your questions and just find out what she's working on and what she's thinking about what's happening in the country right now. So a couple of thoughts. I don't know if you saw this picture yesterday. This is in Michigan. This was Operation Gridlock which I think is what they call an astroturf operation in contrast to a grassroots operation. So this wasn't a bunch of people who just organically on their own of their own volition decided to go protest in Michigan against the stay-at-home orders. This is something that looks to have been funded by those who have an interest in disrupting state government or disrupting the governorship of Governor Whitmer and provoking this country distracting us from the true questions. Number one, where are the ******* tests in a country of 327 million people? How is it that we've only tested a little more than three million of them? Where's the PPE, the personal protective equipment that our frontline healthcare workers need? And where are the ventilators for those states like New York that are the hot spots of the coronavirus pandemic right now? They've got us talking about this stuff. But I want you to notice that there are a couple of folks who have military style weapons strapped to their chests, ammunition belts, face masks on. They are there to intimidate and to terrorize. And they're not doing it for second amendment purposes. And we've seen that in Virginia. We've seen that in Kentucky folks rallying for or against a piece of legislation, bringing out guns to try and intimidate lawmakers or a governor. No, these are folks for a completely different issue. Whether or not the state of Michigan is going to open up or will remain in a stay at home basis, bringing their guns to make the point to try to intimidate the governor, a governor that our president has belittled and ridiculed time and time again. And I want you to see the connection between those two things, because it is that same president who belittled and ridiculed and vilified immigrants and asylum seekers coming from Central America, called them an invasion and an infestation, and routinely tried to stoke anxiety and paranoia and panic amongst our fellow Americans. And many of those fellow Americans were listening and picked up the message loud and clear, including a guy who lived in Allen, Texas, bought himself an AK-47 online. When that weapon came in, his mom called the police in Allen, Texas. And she asked, what does my son need with a military grade weapon? Doesn't need it to hunt, doesn't need it to defend himself. It makes no sense whatsoever. And the police, because this is perfectly legal, although it's not perfectly okay in Texas, said, ma'am, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do about it. That guy drives himself and his AK-47 600 miles to El Paso, Texas. And on August 3rd of last year, walks into a Walmart, seeking to repel that invasion that he'd been warned about by the president to stop this infestation that he kept hearing about, and killed 22 people. Told police afterwards, I came to kill Mexicans. So when you have a president who talks the way he does about the governor of Michigan, he inspires the kind of hatred and the threat of violence that we saw on the steps of the state capitol yesterday. And it won't just be guys showing up with their military grade weapons. Ultimately, it's gonna be those white guys showing up with those weapons and firing them at somebody. We gotta see pictures like that as a wake-up call, and we've gotta respond to it. One more wake-up call, and then I'm gonna bring Shannon on. Global cases for COVID-19, 2.1 million globally reported. This is the official number. We don't know what the real number is yet, because we just don't have enough tests globally. 141,000 people have died worldwide, official reported numbers. United States, 653,000 cases, 31,000 deaths, again, officially reported. Real number of cases, real number of deaths, much higher than that, but we don't know because we only have 3.4 million tests out so far. That is a crime, and that's something that has to be fixed immediately. In Texas, 16,000 cases, just under 400 people, 400 of our fellow Texans have died so far of COVID-19. But you know what? We have tested fewer people per capita in Texas than in any other state so far. So we have absolutely no clue how many people have COVID-19, how many people have died of COVID-19 in this state. Again, this is a crime for which the governor must be accountable, but this is also something that he and others in positions of power and public trust can fix. So get after it and fix this and make sure that we test every single person, trace the contacts of those who've been affected, isolate them so that we stop the spread and we save lives. All right, as promised, Shannon Watts coming up right now. She is the founder and leader of Moms Demand Action. I believe it is the largest gun sense advocacy organization in the country and one of the most effective political organizations bar none. Not only do they organize, not only do they show up, not only do they meet with those who are in office to try to influence the outcome of legislation and policy, they've actually been able to obtain the results that are going to save lives in this country. And we can think about what just happened in Virginia a week ago where Governor Northam signed into law a universal background check and extreme risk protection orders. That is in large part due to Moms Demand Action volunteers and voters who elected people who can make the legislation and then held them accountable, showed up, and were able to counter those crazy white dudes with AR-15s and AK-47s who also showed up to intimidate the legislature in Virginia. For that, she is one of my all-time heroes. She's one of the best follows you can find on Twitter, always intelligent, always really funny, always incisive, always gets to the heart of an issue. So, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Shannon Watts. Let's see if the fox has some intro music. Hey! Hey, how are you? I am great. Thank you for making time for us. Thank you for having me on, and I'm seeing a lot of compliments in the comments about your eyebrows, so I just want to echo that. They look great. Thank you. Thank you. I don't really know what to say to that. Let me ask you maybe the upside of what's changing in our democracy right now. If we have gun-toting thugs storming the statehouse steps in Kentucky recently and Virginia before that, the guys that we saw on the steps in Michigan yesterday, is the counter to that all of these moms and volunteers and advocates showing up in red shirts? I feel like that is a new force unleashed in this country and for our democracy. Tell me a little bit about how you started that and just what kind of effect those moms are having right now on legislation and policy. Yeah, you know, when I started Moms Demand Action, I was a stay-at-home mom for about five years after a long career, and when I saw these mass shootings, and I just want to say, you know, I was living in a bubble because I was upset about school shootings when we all know that the 100 Americans who were shot and killed every single day in this country are in rural communities or city centers, but as a mom of five, that's what got me off the sidelines, and I wanted to join something like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, but for this issue, and I looked online and I couldn't find anything, so I thought, okay, I'll start my own Facebook page, and many, many other moms and women had that same idea that day, which was that it was time to get off the sidelines, and that was really the genesis of Moms Demand Action. What started as an online conversation became one of the largest offline movements in the country, and we've spent the last almost eight years working on this issue legislatively, culturally, electorally, and honestly, to your point, I mean, I think badass army of women is what was needed to counteract this vocal minority of gun extremists, and that's how we've been working at this, chipping away at the gun lobby's power, and frankly, we're winning. We're outspending the gun lobby, we're outworking them on the ground, we're winning elections, and we're changing the face of the nation's laws. I don't think I had an appreciation for the power of Moms Demand Action until I ran for Senate in Texas. I had been a member of Congress for a couple of terms. I'd seen advocacy groups come to Capitol Hill, and they visit your office, and they go to the next office, and you might see them in the corridors and hallways, but traveling to each one of the 254 counties of Texas and having a Moms Demand person or entire contingent show up at those, and not just show up to be a presence, but show up to grab the microphone and ask me really tough questions. Hey, Beto, this is what has happened in my family or in my community, and I want to know what you're going to do about it. I want specific legislative proposals that you're going to introduce or that you're going to vote for, or issues that are coming before Congress right now, and I want to know where you are on that. The level of accountability that I felt was fierce, and it was always shared in such personal terms. Diana Earle is one of your greatest volunteers of all time, but certainly in the state of Texas, whose son, Dedric Earle, was killed in 2016. I met her in 2017, perhaps not a year after her son was killed, and I cannot tell you how many events she came up to me at to share her story, to ask the question, and it made gun violence one of the most important issues for me, really, because I had that personal connection to her. Tell me a little bit about the breadth of volunteers that you have across the country. I've got to assume they're not all moms. They're not all Democrats. They're not all liberals. I bet you they run the gamut. Give us a little bit of an idea about what the organization is comprised of. Yeah, and it's just Diana and Rhonda, I know two of your biggest fans who are volunteers and survivors in Texas. When we started this organization, we immediately went into every single state, and when Congress wouldn't do the work that they needed to do, we pivoted and said, okay, we're going to do this work in state houses and in boardrooms, and we're going to organize like the NRA has, so that when we tell people, do this action, they will send emails, and they will make calls, and they will do the same kinds of things that NRA members have done for a long time, and we're actually now bigger than the NRA. We have over 6 million supporters as an organization. We have 375,000 donors, and just to give you a flavor, and we aren't just moms and women, by the way. We're mothers and others, and we also have students demand action now, but to kind of give you an example of how this works, after the horrific Virginia Beach shooting in that state, we tried to get a special session called and wanted the legislature there to strengthen gun laws in the wake of that tragedy, and the governor called a special session. After 90 minutes, they gaveled out no votes at all, and you saw moms demand action volunteers just streaming into the state house all day, and they were so angry at what happened, they vowed then and there that we would beat those lawmakers, and so we outspent the NRA 8 to 1. We spent about $2.5 million in the state of Virginia, and then we outworked them. We made over 100,000 calls. We knocked tens of thousands of doors, and as a result, on election night, we flipped both chambers of the General Assembly, and last Friday, the governor signed five new gun laws, and we're waiting for two more probably in the next couple of weeks, and it just goes to show you that this is a marathon, not a sprint. You don't get involved in this work thinking you're going to change it overnight. You have to have staying power, and look, if anyone has staying power, it's a mom. You don't give up. You keep fighting, and that's what we do. I love that, and I love the persistence year in and year out. It's winning elections and getting people into positions of power to actually do something, and then it's showing up and demanding that they actually act on the commitments that they made, and then following through, and we just saw six days ago Governor Northam sign into law the universal background checks and the extreme risk protection orders in the Commonwealth of Virginia, so congratulations on that. I thought that was such a great story. Today's the commemoration of the shooting at Virginia Tech, and just to mention there are 13 years, and we've been around for about eight, but there have been volunteers and activists working on this for a long time, so it feels good to win that battle. You talked about the bubble that you lived in prior to starting Moms Demand, and if you thought about gun violence, maybe you thought about sensational gun violence like school shootings or the thugs that I just talked about who protested Governor Whitmer yesterday in Michigan, but tell me where you see part of this crisis that doesn't get enough attention, whether that's gun suicide, whether that's the disproportionate impact on communities of color, what are you seeing or what are you thinking about right now that doesn't get enough attention? Well, and if you look at the coronavirus crisis, it's exacerbating all of those areas, so for example, city gun violence. A lot of communities depend on funding from states and city governments to continue the violence interruption work they do that is so profound and so important to the welfare of those communities, and they're being stripped of those resources, which we know will make the problem worse. If you look at rural gun suicides, we know that people are struggling with isolation, teens in particular, adults may be worried about their economic futures, so gun suicide may become more of an issue given the spike in gun sales last month, something that'll last with us for months and years after this crisis is over. If you look at domestic gun violence, we're seeing women who are isolated with their abusers, and now these abusers have easy access to guns. Some states are making it even easier during the crisis because the NRA is urging them to do so, and then unintentional shootings, right? No other country has this phenomenon that we do where children, including toddlers, get a gun and shoot themselves or someone else, and tens of millions of kids are unexpectedly at home right now, so what we're doing is continuing this work of educating people about responsible gun storage through our program, Be Smart. We know that it can reduce both gun suicides and unintentional shootings. We're urging governors to give more time to law enforcement to finalize background checks. The governor of Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo, an amazing gun sense governor, has done that, but we need every governor to give lawmakers or law enforcement that time. DHS, we are putting pressure on them to roll back the recommendations that would consider gun stores essential businesses, so there's a lot we can be doing, including giving more funding to domestic violence hotlines. It's interesting, as we looked at the numbers in Texas, the connection between domestic violence and gun violence and the lack of action by our state legislature and our governor who, instead of creating gun sense legislation, actually made it easier to carry weapons and to buy weapons and have deemed gun stores and ammunition sales essential items during this pandemic, so we need some of that enlightened leadership here in Texas as well. Shannon, I'm going to try to bring up some questions from some of the folks who are watching right now. This one is from a friend in Dallas. Tim, how can we help Moms Demand now that things are halted? So, if you can't go out and go to your state rep or congressperson's town hall, if you can't travel to the state capitol, what should you be doing right now? There's so much you can do, and if you want to plug into Moms Demand Action, just text the word READY to 64433. Students Demand Action Our students program right now is doing amazing things. We've given them $1.5 million to register new voters in the 13 battleground states we're focusing on. Moms Demand Action, because we have this great access to technology, we are able to use Slack and VAN and all of these different tools that we've been given access to to get out the vote, right? So, we thought we would be ringing physical doorbells. Instead, we have to learn how to ring digital doorbells. And so, we're investing about $60 million in the 2020 election, and we'll do that, starting at least right now, in the short term, online. And so, I would encourage everyone to plug in, and we will help you register new voters, get out the vote, inform the people in every state about who their gun sense candidates are, and to know when to vote and where to vote and who to vote for. So, Jack asks, you know, we talked about Virginia, we talked about Rhode Island. What other states are leading in gun safety measures? Where do you look to for hope or optimism or confirmation that what you're doing is working? Well, just to kind of recap our success in the last eight years, we've now passed background checks in 21 states. That's something that we're waiting for Congress to do. We've passed something called the Red Flag Law now in 18 states. I'm getting ready for 19. That is a law that allows family and law enforcement to get a temporary restraining order to remove guns from someone who's a danger to themselves or others. And we've also passed laws in 28 states that disarm domestic abusers. So, even in a state that you would consider hopeless, we have made huge progress. And sometimes that's playing defense, right? In a state like Arkansas, where when we first started doing this work eight years ago, people didn't really think that this was going to be fruitful. We have become a political powerhouse. We stopped stand your ground twice last year with the Republican supermajority. And we're getting ready to spend $8 million in the state of Texas in 2020, because we believe we can level the playing field there and get a gun sense majority. So, there's no state I would count out. But if you look big picture, we often say that Florida is the NRA's petri dish. It's where they go in and pass the worst laws possible, and then try to extrapolate them and put them across the rest of the country. In many ways, California is that for us where we can go in and pass good laws. One law we're experimenting with here was one that actually raises the threshold that police have to shoot to kill. And we can look at the data that comes out of that and apply it to the rest of the country. This is a question I've actually had for you. Diego says, how do the nasty comments online affect you? Or do they not? I've read some of your responses to some really nasty, hateful, and even violent stuff directed at you. And you always respond in a way that shows your strength. You respond with wit and with humor. And it doesn't seem to phase you. But at some level, that's got to make you a little concerned for your safety and a little bit concerned about who's out there on the other side of this. How does that affect you personally? When I first started the Facebook page, I really didn't have any idea of what to expect. And the blowback was swift and fierce. Threats online and offline, people driving by my home, sending me mail, letters, threatening my life, making calls, sending me texts. I mean, I had to make a pretty quick decision in those early days of whether I was going to back down or double down. And my personality just happens to be that if you come at me, I'm going to just get really angry about it and fight back. And look, when our kids' lives are on the line, we have really no choice except to let that be white noise. And that's what I've done now for all of the years I've been doing this work. And I think the NRA reveals itself. I mean, it started attacking me personally about this time last year. And I think that's because they're desperate. They're underwater financially, reputationally. And they've decided that as a woman who is involved in this issue, I'm an easy target for them. And every time they do it, I think it's important to highlight it. And sunlight's the best disinfectant. Yeah, I agree with you. Although I got to tell you, I'm concerned for you. And I, you know, like the guys on the statehouse steps yesterday in Michigan, you know, on the one hand, they're clowns and they're ridiculous. But on the other hand, that's how this stuff happens. And, you know, I talked about El Paso at the top of the show. And, you know, you had the president making these incendiary comments about immigrants and asylum seekers. And when people would say things at Trump rallies, like, you should shoot them, he'd laugh and kind of encourage that. And that signal found a home in the El Paso killer who had that AK-47 that he could use there. I wonder what the line is between the folks who show up with the guns, the folks who threaten you, and the people who are willing to use violence. But I'm glad that you exposed them, you know, so that we all understand what we're up against. And that, as you point out, the other side is bankrupt, literally, almost. And in terms of ideas and grassroots power, and they have to resort to violence and name calling to try to get under your skin, affect you or stop you. But that's something I've thought about a lot as well as, you know, what kind of effect does that have on you? Tell me your thoughts about what Moms Demand can mean for other issues not related to gun violence. So in my darkest hours, when I worry about the fate of our democracy, and whether we're going to make it as a republic, you know, I think about those Moms Demand volunteers or other grassroots organizations that have successfully advocated and make our democracy work. Anyone else out there doing work like this that is exciting to you or something that you've learned through Moms Demand that you think applies to our democracy at large? Yeah, you know, I am really excited to see middle-aged women and middle-aged women of color in particular, getting their dues. I mean, they've been on the front lines of activism for so long, including the Flint water crisis, and women's rights and reproductive rights and all the different things that matter to us as a country. And I think they understand this is a marathon, not a sprint. It would be great if we could change everything overnight. But most change is incremental. It's how the system is set up. And if you don't get off the sidelines, if you don't do what I call the heavy, the unglamorous heavy lifting of grassroots activism every single day, that means showing up at every single gun bill hearing for our organization, then change doesn't happen. So you do have to be patient. You have to know you're going to be in this for a while. And I mean, look at people gave up on the women's right to vote until every woman, black and white, could get the right to vote. It took over a hundred years. Some of those people didn't live to see it to fruition. And I guess I would say also it's generational. I've learned so much from the generation above me. Retirees do so much heavy lifting in volunteer activism and, you know, sit on their phone during the day and make calls for what we call our Gun Sense Action Network. And then students, you know, I'm learning so much from them about how to use technologies, how to have conversations, how to be brave and courageous. And I think they bring a spirit and a leadership to activism that that is really important. So some of it is just kind of coming together and working together for a common purpose, even though we're from all different walks of life. We have a question about what the effort that you were part of to produce a gun sense majority in Virginia. What lessons that could hold for Texas? Well, I think the lesson is that red states can become gun sense states. We know that if you look at the data, the vast majority of constituents in these states, including Texas, support stronger gun laws. Gun owners support stronger gun laws. Only one in 10 of every gun owner is even a member of the NRA, right? So this is about what the majority of the constituents want and undoing that work that the gun lobby has done for so long to have power over our lawmakers. And again, it's a vocal minority and it's a minority of lawmakers, but it is a roadblock over and over again. And if people stand up and speak out, there's certainly strength in numbers. It changes. Now it might not change quickly, but it does change. And you may go from playing really good defense to eventually getting to play offense. But I think the lesson is to not give up, but also to show up, right? So lawmakers have seen that they should be more afraid of Mom's Demand Action volunteers than gun lobbyists. And that's because when we show up in the dozens or hundreds in our red shirts, we make a point, which is if you do the right thing, we'll have your back. If you do the wrong thing, we'll have your job. And that you have to prove over and over until sometimes the message gets through, but it does eventually. We're only nine seats down from a Democratic or gun sense majority in Texas. And I guess we shouldn't always assume that party affiliation will define your position on guns. When we did research on the 150 members of the state house in Texas and their votes on gun legislation, I was initially surprised to see how many Democrats voted in a way that I didn't think improved safety or security here in Texas. It may be in part because we don't have that disinfectant of sunshine. There's not enough transparency or accountability for those votes. But I know that when your volunteers and other gun sense advocates get involved in these elections, we're going to elect people who will be accountable to them insofar as they'll do the right thing, right? Not accountable to NRA where we're not going to give you money if you don't vote our way, but accountable to people who have families that they want to protect and keep safe. And I got to tell you, I'm struck every time I engage with someone who I assume is not going to see things the same way I do on guns. In fact, going to a gun show, I remember in Arkansas where they're selling AR-15s and AK-47s, and I just come out for a proposal for a mandatory buyback. And I was really impressed at the level of conversation I could have with people. Folks would say, look, I really disagree with you, Beto, but I'm impressed that you're here. And I'm also concerned because I have kids who are in school and I worry about them coming home at the end of the day. And I know that there's got to be a way that we do better than what we have right now. And so maybe there's some common ground with that guy that we can reach. But unless we have people in office who are willing to force that conversation, you're just not going to make any progress. And Texas is unfortunately kind of a textbook example of that so far, although I think it's going to change this year in large part because of all the amazing volunteers, including Moms Demand Action volunteers, who are going to play such a significant role. Last question, and then we'll make sure that we let you go. Tell me what you see big picture for the future, not necessarily the next legislative victories in Texas or the next policy changes going forward. But we get through this pandemic. We come out the other side. What are you looking forward to? What do you see happening in this country? Well, I'm looking forward to the 2020 election. It's going to be the most pivotal election, not only for our movement, but I think of our lifetimes. You and I are about the same age, and certainly we've never seen anything like what's going on right now. So this election is important for a lot of reasons, but it's certainly important for gun prevention. We have to elect a gun sense president. We believe we can flip the Senate, and that hasn't always been the case. We do believe we can flip the Senate. We have to hold the House. Imagine what this crisis would be like if we hadn't won the House. And then we have to change the makeup of state legislatures across the country. When we do that, we win. If you look at states like Nevada and New Mexico and Virginia, that's how we finally got good law, good gun laws in place, was by changing out the state lawmakers who won't side with us. But to your point, we have changed hearts and minds, and we are seeing more Republicans vote the right way on this issue. Not enough, but we are starting to see those glimmers of hope. And that's why we are nonpartisan, and we are research-based, because we have to be able to change hearts and minds. We're not going to unelect everybody overnight. So if we want to get to the place that we're going to make a real difference, it's that way. But I am really, really eager for, you know, if I could go forward in time, I would be in January of 2021, because I'm so eager to get started playing offense at many levels. I love that. I love your approach, your attitude, and the way that you look at things. And I'm so grateful for the work that you've done and your leadership for this country at this critically important moment. And love that we in El Paso, through Jodi and the team that leads Moms Demand here, get to be a part of that. So please keep it up. Can I just say to you, I'm so grateful, our volunteers are so grateful that you really were one of the very first candidates in this country, certainly at the Senate and presidential levels, to talk about this issue so passionately and so freely and bravely. And we will never forget that. We're very grateful you changed the conversation. Well, thank you. Thank you. And again, large part because of the volunteers, like Diana, like Rhonda, that I had a chance to meet along the way. Last thing that I've got to tell you, and I should have said this at the beginning, your eyebrows also are amazing. Thank you. I just I'm so grateful that you did this, and I hope that you will join us again and urge everyone, if you're not following Shannon Watts on Twitter right now and on Instagram and on Facebook, but especially on Twitter, where she's just absolutely devastatingly effective, please do that. It's one of the best accounts you can follow. Thanks for being here. Thanks for all you're doing. And we'll see you again, I hope soon. Thank you, Beto. Adios. Oh, that's makes my day to be able to talk to Shannon Watts. So that's the interview I've been perhaps most nervous about, because I so admire Shannon and the work that she does on a daily, an hourly basis, really, in setting this country on the right course. And I kept coming back to the theme of democracy, because I think beyond what she's doing on gun violence and gun legislation, she's changing our democracy for the better. She and those volunteers, we mentioned Rhonda Hart and Diana Earle, and millions more across the country. You know, if I'm looking for optimism, if I want to have, you know, my faith borne out in this country, I look to those who are getting up off the couches and into the state houses and the halls of Congress and forcing change this country needs to have. So she's she is one of my all-time heroes, and I'm very grateful to her that she joined us. Quick programming note, and I saw him on the feed a little bit earlier. Tomorrow we're going to have Colin O'Brady, who just wrote an amazing book that describes really his life, but in particular focuses on his unassisted solo crossing of Antarctica, which is just remarkable. I just finished the book, so impressive, and thought about having Mon just to tell us some of these stories, and also to talk about what it's like to live in isolation, and can you think of anything more isolated than being on the ice in Antarctica in a tent by yourself with no ability to see or talk or reach out to anyone in the rest of the world? He's also running something called the Calendar Club right now, where you add a mile to your run every single day, I guess for a month. I don't know how long I've kind of been following him doing that on Instagram. So really looking forward to seeing Colin tomorrow. You all should join us. It's at 4 30 Mountain Standard Time, 5 30 Central. I pinned a link right at the bottom. This is the El Paso Food Bank. Quick story, I was talking to the CEO of the food bank today, and she talked about going to a Walgreens yesterday to buy sunscreen for all those volunteers who are out there handing out food to more than 6,800 families who drove up to one of the food banks or one of the pantries in El Paso yesterday. So she's got like a hundred dollars worth of sunscreen in her arms, and she's checking out, and the cashier asks her what all the sunscreen is for, and Susan, the CEO, says, well, this is for my volunteers at the food bank where we're handing out food. And the cashier says, so there's a place in El Paso you can go to get food? Because it turns out in a family of seven, she's the only one who still has a job. And Cynthia called some of the Walgreens around town today, and starting hourly wage for a cashier in El Paso is $10 an hour. In good times, try feeding your family, paying the rent, making ends meet, buying school supplies for your kids on $10 an hour. Now try to do it when your spouse is out of work, when your folks are out of work, when your brother and sister are out of work, and you're trying to provide for all of them. And so that person in a family of seven, the only one earning the paycheck, found out about the food bank, and I guarantee you, today or whenever her day off is, she's going to be driving to it, where she will be able to pick up a week's worth of groceries that will allow her and her family to feed themselves, to survive, to be okay, and to know that we care about them, and we love them, and that they're going to be all right in the long term as we get through this. This food bank in El Paso is competing against every other food bank in the country to buy groceries and supplies and food to distribute to those people in El Paso. Again, 6,800 came out yesterday in a city that was already very food insecure, in a country that is the wealthiest, most powerful on planet earth, where no one should be food insecure. If you have the means to make a donation, 10 bucks, 20 bucks, 30 bucks, whatever you can afford, please click this link, make a donation. I guarantee you that cashier at Walgreens, her family, the other people in our community will deeply appreciate it. If you want to give to your local food bank wherever you live, if they have need there, if you want to volunteer at your local food bank, please do that. We can't, most of us, provide medical care. We can't do much more than stay out of the way, stay at home, wash our hands, keep six foot distance. This is one of those essential volunteer tasks. However, if you're healthy, if you're not too old, if you don't have any underlying conditions, you can still go out and do, or this is a task that you can support by funding at the link right here. All right, we'll see you tomorrow with Colin O'Brady. Our thanks again to Shannon Watts, to our producer, Cynthia Cano, to our graphics department, Christy, and to our CDC statistician, Elizabeth. Thank you all. We'll see you mañana. Adios.