Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence

In 2023, Teachers Unify supported efforts to have President Joe Biden “pack” the U.S. Supreme Court with left-of-center justices before the end of his administration. ^{2 3 4}

Leadership

Two of Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence’s founders are teachers who survived high-profile school shootings. Its executive director as of 2025, Abbey Clements, was a second-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut during the 2012 shooting at that school in which 26 students and teachers were killed. Co-founder and board member Sarah Lerner was a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018 when 17 students and staff members were killed in a spree shooting. ¹

Affiliated Organizations

Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence has strong connections to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation’s second-largest teachers union. ⁵

In 2022, the press release announcing the group’s founding identified its leaders as “Three public school teachers and American Federation of Teachers union members.” ⁶ Those three, along with AFT staff member Kelly Carmichael Booz, remain on Teachers Unify’s eight-person board as of 2025. ¹

In 2022, the launch announcement for the AFT’s “Enough is Enough” gun control campaign characterized Teachers Unify as part of the AFT’s efforts to promote gun control, saying “AFT members have been active on gun violence prevention for years. Three members started Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence last year, and the union is working with them to make sure educators are informed and empowered.” ⁷

Advocacy

Teachers Unify advocates for new laws that would increase restrictions on civilian ownership and use of firearms and opposes laws and policies that would increase firearms ownership.  ⁸

Its position is that the Supreme Court’s District of Columbia v. Heller and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen cases, among others, were wrongfully decided and went too far in holding that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to firearms ownership and armed self-defense. ⁹

It supported Biden administration Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s efforts to declare gun violence a public health crisis. ⁸

In a 2024 interview published in the AFT’s American Educator magazine, Teachers Unify Executive director Abbey Clements suggested, “when local candidates call or text asking for money, ask them where they stand on issues of arming teachers, overpolicing schools, and safe gun storage.” ⁵

Advocacy

“Court Packing”

Teachers Unify was a founding member of the Just Majority campaign to convince President Joe Biden to “pack” the U.S. Supreme Court with left-of-center justices who would overturn decisions by the Court’s right-of-center majority, including decisions that upheld the traditional Second Amendment rights of Americans to own firearms and use them in self-defense. ^{10 2} In 2023, Teachers Unify endorsed legislation from U.S. Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) that would have added four more justices to the Supreme Court, giving then-President Biden the opportunity to install a left-of-center majority. ^{10 4}

In a November 2023 op-ed, Teachers Unify executive director Abbey Clements criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for hearing United States v. Rahimi, a case challenging a law prohibiting people under domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms. Clements wrote that the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case proved that the Court was “a major threat to common sense gun laws.” ⁹ She argued that “the fact that keeping guns from domestic abusers is now in question shows the Supreme Court has completely lost touch with reality,” and used that justification in her call for ethics reforms, term limits, and adding additional justices to the Court. The Supreme Court upheld the law in question by an 8-1 vote. ^{3 9}