Change The Ref have created a mobile "NRA Children’s Museum" - a convoy of schools buses

Change The Ref, a gun control and anti-gun violence advocacy organization are rolling out the NRA Children’s Museum, a mile-long convoy of schools buses, in Houston, Texas.

The Yellow Bus Project, the school buses are peacefully assembling today and will mobilize towards the offices of Senator Ted Cruz, the leading recipient of gun lobbyist funding in the State of Texas ($749,000 total).

The mile-long convoy is made up of 52 school buses, whose empty seats represent the 4,368 children who would have sat there but instead fell victim to gun violence. The NRA Children’s Museum will be on display in the leading bus. This unthinkable collection will be filled with photos, videos, audio recordings, and personal memories of the children who have lost their lives to shootings since 2020 – from a Nickelodeon backpack from Santa Clarita, California to a girl scout sash from Santa Fe, Texas.

"The sounds have children screaming has been removed"

Now, showing real numbers by using school buses is a very effective way to get people to care, as we learned when Street Grace a non-profit created to stop traffic literally stopped traffic, as they drove 72 school buses through Atlanta. That case study raked in all the awards. This will too, I'm certain of it. And, there is a hashtag - #NRAChildrensMuseum - so you can tweet the senators too.

“To commemorate this horrific historic moment, we are showing American voters the toll these politicians have taken on our children's lives with this all-too-real archive,” said Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin was one of the 17 victims in the 2018 Parkland, Florida massacre. Manuel co-founded Change the Ref with his wife Patricia in Joaquin’s memory. “And this is only the beginning. We will not stop with Sen. Ted Cruz. To every politician who has stood by, taken NRA money, and refused to listen to the people they represent: the museum is on the way to honor you next.”

“We want to display, for the voters who keep these politicians in office, the consequences of those choices. We want voters to remember which politicians are in the pocket of the NRA when they visit the polls in November,” added Patricia Oliver. “We urge everyone to join us in our mission to fight for every innocent soul lost to gun violence and to demand universal background checks on gun sales.”

As a part of the mobile museum, Manuel and Patricia Oliver will present Sen. Cruz with a “gift”: a letter from their son, Joaquin Oliver, asking for background checks on gun sales written when he was 12, less than five years before the Parkland tragedy that took his life. The hope is that this gift will spark a realization and understanding that receiving political donations from the NRA and other gun lobbyists isn’t worth an innocent child’s life.

A petition to demand that lawmakers take action in requiring universal background checks is available at ChangeTheRef.org.

To learn more about the campaign, visit nrachildrensmuseum.com.

It's already creating quite a stir online.

RIGHT NOW: Dozens of school buses are showing up to Senator Ted Cruz’s office downtown to honor gun violence victims & push for gun reform. @KHOU pic.twitter.com/Yy9RB4ABJT

— Ugochi Iloka KHOU (@UgochiKHOU) July 14, 2022

The campaign is led by Change the Ref and executed by Hungryman, Tusk Strategies, Ogilvy, and others.