Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund

It was founded by Nicole Hockley in 2013. She is the mother of Dylan Hockley, who was killed at in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14th, 2012.

Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund is the 501(c)(4) advocacy and lobbying arm of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise Foundation.

Advocacy

Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund lobbies for legislation advocating for school safety and gun control at both the federal level and the state level.

At the state level, the group advocates for a “Model School Safety Policy.” The Model School Safety Policy is a piece of model legislation that would require schools to implement four specific policies. The policies it lists are a school threat assessment, student safety and violence prevention training, school personnel and student suicide prevention training, and an anonymous reporting system.¹

It is also pushing for states to pass Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs).¹ ERPOs, also known as Gun Violence Restraining Orders, are proposed laws to enable a spouse, parent, sibling, or person living with an individual suspected of mental illness or fleeting violent tendencies to petition a court for an order enabling law enforcement to temporarily take that individual’s guns right away for a set period of time.²

The Sandy Hook Promise organizations also support “restrictions on magazine and caliber size ammunition.”³ The group praised the advancement of a set of gun control proposals in New Jersey in 2014.⁴

In August 2018, Sandy Hook Promise issued a press release that opposed the proposed plan by the Department of Education to provide funding to arm teachers. The press release encouraged people to call the office of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to discourage adoption of the program.⁵

Lobbying

Spending

In 2013, Sandy Hook Promise Action spent $160,000 on lobbying at the federal level. In 2014, it spent $20,000 on lobbying. In 2015, it spent $30,000 on lobbying. In 2016, it spent $80,000 on lobbying. In 2017, it spent $75,000 on lobbying. Through September 10, 2018, it had spent $60,000 on lobbying in 2018.⁶

Issues Lobbied

In the 113th Congress (2013-2014), Sandy Hook Promise lobbied for three major pieces of gun control and school safety legislation.⁷ The Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act of 2013, which was introduced by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), sought to reauthorize the grant program for improvements to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, as well as to establish the National Commission on Mass Violence, which would study issues related to firearms and mass violence.⁸

The Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013, which was introduced by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada), would have expanded background checks on firearm purchases, increase restrictions on straw purchasing, and increase security at schools.⁹ The Mental Health Awareness and Improvement Act of 2013 introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) sought to reauthorize funding for suicide prevention programs and child trauma centers, as well as create a mental health awareness training program.¹⁰

In the 115th Congress (2017-2018), Sandy Hook Promise lobbied for the Wireless Telecommunications Tax and Fee Collection Fairness Act introduced by Rep. Ed Royce (R-California), an appropriations bill that included a provision that dealt with improving reporting by the Department of Defense to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System;¹¹ the Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing School Violence Act of 2018 introduced by Rep. John Rutherford (R-Florida) and U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to reauthorize security grants to schools;^{12 13} and  the Science Appropriations Act 2019, an appropriations bill that contained a provision to upgrade criminal and mental health records for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.^{14 15}

Leadership

Mark Barden is the co-founder, co-CEO, and Board Director of the Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund. His son was killed during the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. ¹⁶