8 years after Pulse, Maxwell Frost says gun control movement has grown stronger than the gun lobby

Eight years after the Pulse nightclub shooting, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost says the push for gun control has grown in strength.

The Orlando Democrat called for greater gun regulation measures during an Instagram Live with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

“As someone who’s been in this movement since I was 15 years old, so a little over a decade, the gun violence prevention movement, for the first time, I think for real, is stronger than the gun lobby,” Frost said.

Frost filed legislation last year to establish an Office of Gun Violence Prevention. It has not been considered in the Republican-controlled House, but President Joe Biden created such an office administratively.

And while Congress has not taken up measures like a bill allowing credit card companies to track gun purchases, Frost said there’s plenty of reason for optimism about what has advanced in Washington. He cited the bipartisan Safer Communities Act (S 2938) and other federal investments in minority communities to reduce gun violence.

“That’s what I got tear gassed for and jailed for in Orlando, Florida,” Frost said. “What I was fighting in the movement for Black lives was more resources in our community. We’re getting it. We’re winning.”

Frost made the comments during an HRC Instagram Live event with activists from Giffords. It took place on the eight-year anniversary of the Pulse shooting, when a killer swearing allegiance to ISIS killed 49 people with a Sig Sauer MGC and a Glock pistol. He bought the rifle and ammunition within days of the attack on the Orlando gay nightclub.

The HRC event was moderated by HRC Press secretary Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse shooting.

He noted a phrase utilized regularly among LGBTQ advocates now that he said was birthed from the Pulse tragedy.

“We don’t just honor them with empty words or hollow sympathies,” Wolf said. “We honor those stolen from us with action.”

He said people need to become politically active not just by listening to online forums but by contacting politicians and even running for office themselves.