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Your Favorite Celebs Are Teaming Up With Parkland Students For A New Anti-NRA Campaign

by Morgan Brinlee
Randy Shropshire/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

When you think about superhero teams, you likely think of the Justice League, the Avengers, or the X-Men. But there's a new super group getting ready to go into battle: On the 19-year anniversary of the Columbine shooting, a number of celebrities and activists launched a new coalition designed to take on the National Rifle Association (NRA). So, what is #NoRa?

The group, whose acronym stands for No Rifle Association, vowed Friday to help lift up the voices of gun violence survivors to combat the heavy influence of NRA money in politics. "Your time signing checks in our blood is up," the coalition wrote in an open letter to NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. "We're going to shine a bright light on what you and your organization do to America. We're going to make sure the whole world sees your bloody hands."

"We're coming for your money. We're coming for your puppets," NoRA Initiative members went on to say in the letter. "And we're going to win."

Actress Alyssa Milano told Time magazine she'd been inspired to help create NoRA shortly after 17 people were killed in a deadly school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida earlier this year. Since forming in February the group has reportedly raised more than $25,000 via private donations, Time has reported.

The group's members include celebrities like Alec Baldwin, Michael Ian Black, Minnie Driver, Ashley Judd, Jimmy Kimmel, Debra Messing, Julianne Moore, Patton Oswalt, Jason Ritter, Amy Schumer, Amber Tamblyn, and Constance Wu, as well as activists like Parkland students David Hogg and Cameron Kasky and #MeToo founder Tarana Burke. According to the group, their members also include a number of artists, writers, gun violence survivors, and policy experts.

"You purchased politicians, and you fought every single basic gun reform measure that might have saved lives," NoRA members wrote in their letter to LaPierre. "And you did it because you and the gun manufacturers that fund you vale money over lives."

"Today we follow in the footsteps of the brave Parkland students and those who have come before to make sure you and those marionettes whose strings you pull hear all the voices who have been hurt by the gun violence you enable," the coalition's letter went on to read.

According to Time, NoRA members plan to chip away at the NRA's political influence via grassroots organizing and digital campaigns aimed at raising awareness about which legislators are being funded with money from the NRA. The coalition, which describes itself as "part festival, part protest, part art installation" on its website, says it's "culture-focused but results driven" and aims to "inspire new policy" when it comes to gun legislation.

Although in its infancy, NoRA already appears to have big plans. "We're going to show up at the NRA convention in Dallas and make them wish they stayed home," the coalition wrote on their website in reference to the annual NRA Meetings and Exhibits event set to take place next month. "We might just sue the pants off the NRA." The coalition also reportedly plans to host things like boycotts, demonstrations, voter registration campaigns, and expose NRA-funded politicians through a nationwide art campaign.

But perhaps most significantly, NoRA plans disrupt national conversations about gun control by taking back the microphone from the NRA. Instead, NoRA hopes to amplify and lift up the voices of gun violence survivors. "We're no longer going to let the NRA drive the conversation," NoRA members said in a statement on their website. "We're hacking their car and joy-riding to a better place, for a better life."