John Woods

Name: John Woods Location: Austin, TX Science by day, violence prevention by night. I lost close friends in the VA Tech shooting. Now in TX, working to keep guns off campus.

A little about me

I'm from Alexandria, VA, and I graduated from Virginia Tech in 2007, three weeks after I lost the girl I loved in the worst school shooting in U.S. history.

Now, while pursuing a molecular biology Ph.D. at the University of Texas, I work to prevent others from experiencing what we went through at Virginia Tech. I organized the Texas chapter of Students for Gun-Free Schools, a non-profit founded by survivors of the Virginia Tech shooting.

In 2009, we successfully defeated a bill which would force colleges and universities to allow guns in classrooms; and this session, we are poised to defeat a similar bill which everyone claimed was a “slam dunk” due to the Republican supermajority in the Texas Legislature.

After the Texas Legislature gavels out, I hope to resume work toward closing a loophole which allows firearms to be sold at gun shows without background checks. Last Summer, Virginia Tech survivor Colin Goddard and I took a hidden camera into two gun shows in Texas and filmed the purchase of an M-11 with no background check and a photocopied driver’s license, as well as the purchase of a pistol with neither a check nor identification.

I hope to highlight the absurdity of this country’s gun laws and help to put this important issue back on the table. No one should have to experience what we did at Virginia Tech.

My interests lie in campus safety, violence prevention, general higher education issues, and data mining.

I would describe myself as a

offline activitst

Why I deserve a Netroots Nation Scholarship

As if working on a Ph.D. in the sciences were not already hard enough, I spent my free time working to kill a measure in the Texas Legislature that would have forced colleges and universities to allow guns in classrooms.

We are poised to win despite previously unanimous agreement among observers that the legislation was a done deal, fueled in part by a supermajority of Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives.

I knew nothing of state politics when I started two years ago. I studied the process, identified and reached out to key supporters, coded (by hand) a web application for our organization, read about management of non-profits, composed an email campaign, built a mailing list from scratch, learned to write press releases and media advisories, obtained phone lists and organized volunteers, and managed a Facebook page (facebook.com/sgfstexas) and Twitter feed (twitter.com/sgfstexas) to aggregate news and inform.

When I realized the media was largely absent, I organized students with video cameras to film hearings and debates in the Texas Legislature, and I assembled a YouTube channel to store the content (youtube.com/sgfstexas).

When I saw the need for an advertising budget, I put together online fundraising. Through personal contacts and our email campaigns, I raised over $750; with that money, I optimized Facebook and Google ads to educate our supporters and increase involvement.

I did all of this without any financial support, and while working full-time on my doctoral research.

I manage these blogs

Huffington Post: John Woods
Students for Gun-Free Schools in Texas: Blog

The blogs I use most are

Congress Matters
Fix Congress First! Blog

What first inspired me to get involved

I never intended to become involved in gun politics, but Texas lawmakers said they wanted to "prevent another Virginia Tech" by forcing colleges and universities to allow guns in classrooms. Taking them at their word about violence prevention, I tried to connect them with survivors and family members, none of whom support such legislation -- but all of whom have a wealth of other ideas about how campus safety may be improved.

The lawmakers didn't back off, and in fact, some upped the rhetoric. I felt that it was reprehensible that they would use my friends' deaths to promote an ideological agenda that would make campuses less safe.

How I've gotten others involved

I network -- both online and offline. I speak as often as I can to political organizations, particularly to student audiences, about campus safety and the absurdity of the gun debate today.

I set up a Facebook page and Twitter feed to inform our supporters about the issue. Most people feel that they don't know enough to become involved. By providing them with easy access to such information, I give them a leg up.

Lastly, I offer an example. Through personal conversations, I inspired a fellow Democratic delegate to our state party's convention to add language against guns in higher education to the state party platform. Then, last month, with the help of some other local activists, I put together a phonebank. We called delegates from the state convention and let them know that some Democratic state senators were supporting the guns-on-campus legislation. Over the course of a few phone calls, we changed the outcome of the vote in the Texas Senate.

I use that story to inspire others. Most people have no first-hand experience with their efforts changing lawmakers' votes. In this case, however, the news reported these senators saying that phone calls from constituents changed their minds. I think such experiences are incredibly empowering for young progressive activists.

The blog post I am most proud of

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-woods/guns-campus_b_836262.html

Why I think participation in the blogosphere is important

Gun violence prevention has very little financial support in the United States these days. That means we have no paid communication strategists, and thus no one on call to respond to absurd claims by the gun lobby. The media reports such claims unquestioned too frequently.

Blogging offers a voice to people who have been directly affected by violence. It enables us to test and hone our messages -- important primarily because none of us are professional activists. Blogging enables us to reach people that never would have heard from us a decade ago, and to put out information that the gun lobby wants desperately to hide.

My Twitter manifesto on online activism

Online activism allows us to inform people who feel strongly about an issue in a lazy way -- but the outcome is anything but lazy. Many people won't become engaged unless they know enough about an issue to become involved, so the information we provide th

My idea for a cool new online action

I want to see a Voter Activation Network (voter database) that non-profits and activists can access in a controlled manner, even without a lot of money.