I knew that Time's profile of Moms Demand Action Executive Director Angela Ferrell-Zabala was going to be the puffiest of puff pieces from the very first line, which proclaims that "gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in the United States."
No it's not. As we've pointed out here at Bearing Arms time and again, the only way that statistic is true is to exclude children under the age of 1, and to add in adults aged 18 and 19. Even the Washington Post acknowledged in 2025 that the claim is misleading, noting that the vast majority of firearm-involved deaths among those younger than 18 occur in the 15-to-17-year-old age range.
But when older teens (15 to 17, as defined by Johns Hopkins) are removed from the calculations using the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS), the numbers change dramatically, with almost 50 percent more deaths from vehicle crashes than firearms. Vehicle crashes exceed firearms deaths also for ages 1 to 15.
As for children, ages 1 to 9 as defined by Johns Hopkins, firearms deaths are so much lower that they don’t even make second place. Usually, most children die from vehicle crashes, but in 2023 drownings topped the list. There were 630 children who died by drowning, 578 in vehicle crashes and 234 by firearms.
Facts like these won't be found in the Time profile of the gun control activist. In fact, you won't find the phrase "gun control" in the piece either. There's a whole host of phrases that are absent in Ferrell-Zabala's glowing profile, even though they are an instrumental part of her job: "gun ban", "magazine ban," "assault weapon," "waiting period, and "gun-free zones", to name just a few.
"Common-sense gun laws" made the cut, naturally, as did "gun safety movement." But even though Moms Demand Action advocates for all kinds of restrictive policies on gun ownership, the Time profile really only talks about one.
Recent years have seen Moms Demand Action expand its legislative advocacy to address new and emerging threats, particularly the rise of ghost guns and other DIY firearms. In 2024, Polymer80, the largest manufacturer of ghost gun kits and parts, shut down after Everytown and Moms Demand Action led an effort to hold the company accountable in court. Last year, with the support of local chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, California signed first-of-its-kind legislation that prohibits gun dealers from selling “DIY machine guns,” or firearms that can be easily converted into fully automatic weapons. And in May, New York passed a bill preventing 3-D printers from downloading software that aids in the production of ghost guns. “[Gun violence] is so pervasive because access—unfettered access—is the problem,” Ferrell-Zabala says.
As we discussed earlier today, the bill doesn't do what Time claims it does. It sets up a panel to determine whether its feasible to block printers from making gun parts, and the ban would not be implemented unless the panel gives the green light. As we also discussed, even some supporters of the bill say it won't work to prevent criminals from making their own guns.
It took me a minute to figure out that Time's reference to "DIY machine guns" was talking about California's bill banning the sale of Glocks and other striker-fired pistols, which are some of the most popular firearms in the country today. My guess is that many of Time's readers will have no idea that Moms Demand Action is pushing for prohibiting the sale of popular pistols, even while exempting their purchase and possession for police.
The magazine closes its fawning profile with this paragraph:
A mother of four, Ferrell-Zabala advocates for reform not only on behalf of her own children but for everyone’s children. She underscores that while Moms Demand Action advocates for gun safety from all angles—culture, politics, legislation, policy, and research—simply having a conversation with your neighbors is a step in the right direction. “When you drop your kid off at a sleepover or playdate, all it takes is asking a question about whether or not the firearms are secured,” she says. “[There are] simple actions we can take to move this forward.”
That is just a very small piece of what Moms Demand Action is advocating for, and Ferrell-Zabala isn't content to focus on "simple actions" like that. Her goal, and the goal of the organization she heads, is to make it culturally unacceptable to own a firearm, politically poisonous to defend the Second Amendment, and legally dangerous to exercise your right to keep and bear arms. Angela Ferrell-Zabala may be a visionary, but the vision she has for the future is one where the exercise of a fundamental civil right has been turned into a crime.
