Former Republican Congressman and former NFL player join new gun safety organization
LOS ANGELES, CA (February 23, 2022) – 97Percent is proud to announce the addition of two new advisory board members: former Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo of Florida and former NFL offensive tackle and screenwriter Ephraim Salaam.
Salaam and Curbelo join the new gun safety organization’s 14-member leadership team, which includes two former NRA lobbyists, Grey’s Anatomy/Station 19 actor and activist Jason George, Republican strategist and co-host of The Circus, Mark McKinnon, and former Brady Campaign President Richard Aborn. McKinnon and Aborn recently co-authored an op-ed published in The Hill analyzing a poll of more than 1,000 gun owners that 97Percent recently released with Beacon Research.
“We are building a bipartisan team who shares our mission to reduce gun deaths in this country by changing the conversation around gun safety to include gun owners,” said 97Percent Executive Director Mathew Littman. “Part of the light we are shining is that gun owners aren’t a monolithic group. Ephraim Salaam and Congressman Curbelo bring unique and important perspectives to the table.”
Salaam is a 13-year NFL veteran, who played for five teams after being drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 1998. He earned recognition as the youngest player to ever start in the Super Bowl. He is currently a writer and producer for TV and film, working on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot.
“I’m a gun owner who firmly supports the Second Amendment,” said Salaam. “With my two sons at home, I’m passionate about proper gun storage and safety, which is one of the reasons I joined 97Percent. I’m also passionate about ensuring guns aren’t available to those prohibited from owning them.”
Curbelo – who represented Florida’s 26th district – was elected to Congress in 2014, where he served until 2019. Consistently ranked one of the most bipartisan members of congress, he introduced legislation with fellow 97Percent board member Congressman Seth Moulton – a Democrat representing Massachusetts’s 6th district – to ban bump stocks, as well as no-fly, no-buy legislation following the Pulse nightclub shooting. Curbelo now serves as an on-air analyst for NBC News, MSNBC, and Telemundo, among others.
“I’m tired of this being a partisan issue. There are common-sense solutions that will save lives in our country, and I like the approach 97Percent is taking: involving gun owners. The research they’re conducting is really important to making progress on this intractable issue,” said Curbelo.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Stephanie Genuardi Cunnane
stephanie@97percent.us
215-896-8193
About 97Percent
97Percent is a bipartisan group of gun owners and non-gun owners united in our mission to reduce gun deaths in America, while respecting the Second Amendment. We believe the way to do that is by changing the conversation around gun safety to include gun owners, conducting innovative research, and leveraging technology to make our communities safer.
Our name was inspired by a 2018 Quinnipiac University poll, which found that 97% of Americans support universal background checks: a critical gun safety policy that has yet to be made into federal law. While individual polls vary, support levels hover around 90% – a figure that represents unprecedented agreement on a topic viewed as intractable. We are committed to making progress on solutions that non-gun owners and gun owners want to make our country safer.