Last week, the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans joined Democrats on the floor of the U.S. House for a day-long sit-in protest over gun control.
The protest, fueled by the deadly shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, drew more than 100 lawmakers and advocacy groups. Despite the attention and public outcry on social media, no legislative action has been taken.
25 hours later, our #sit-in is ending, but not our resolve. TY to everybody who sent support. We CAN make Americans safe from gun violence!
— Judy Chu (@RepJudyChu) June 23, 2016
“This is far more than enough. It is long past time for Congress to take action – from closing background check loopholes and strengthening our national security to allowing research on gun control and repealing immunity for the gun industry, which prevents victims of gun violence from holding bad actors accountable,” said NCAPA National Director Christopher Kang in a statement to Congress.
Gun control remains a divisive matter in the United States. A survey done by Pew Research Center found that 52 percent of Americans prioritized gun rights over 46 percent who favored gun control.
However, Asian Americans are more supportive of stricter gun control laws. A collaborative survey done by a group of APIA organizations found that more than half of Asian Americans prioritize gun control.
Forty percent of Asian Americans felt that gun control is an “extremely” important issue in the upcoming election. Combined with those who felt it was “very important,” the number rose to 74 percent for those who felt that gun control is “very important” or more.
Asian Americans also agree that there should be stricter gun control laws. When asked if they agreed or disagreed to the statement “We should have stricter gun laws in the US,” 77 percent agreed. Filipinos agreed the least at 67 percent, and the Vietnamese were the highest at 89 percent.
“We have seen massacre after massacre. I’ll never forget when there was the shooting of 14 in the district next to mine in San Bernardino, and then I continued to see massacres,” said Representative Judy Chu, head of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, told MSNBC in an interview during the sit-in last week. “But when 49 people were murdered in Orlando and nothing done about it, and the only response were moments of silence, well, so many of us said, enough is enough. We have to do something about this.”
