By: Sarah Johnson
This week I had the amazing opportunity to interview Charles Yeganian, founder of the project LEAP Forward, about what he is doing and how he gets it all done.
LEAP Forward was established for the express purpose of creating a legislative grading system from a pro-gun regulation perspective (think the contra NRA, more or less). Charles started LEAP Forward in 2017; following many of the same instincts that motivated people to re-engage in politics or that inspired the new generation of candidates running for office for the first time. With his background in politics, working in a consulting firm fundraising for Democratic candidates and non-profits, and a conversation with a dad from school, Charles was inspired to do something, to start something. I was especially interested in the nuts and bolts of how he turned his vision into reality.
What Does LEAP Forward Do?
Charles noted the lack of transparency and arbitrary nature in which the National Rifle Association publishes its ratings for candidates and legislators. When trying to understand the rating system, Charles found himself asking is it based on votes? On statements? Is it truly something that is useful to a voter? The system the NRA has in place makes it difficult for constituents to understand why representatives receive poor scores, which then essentially renders those scores useless to voters who prioritize gun-safety and may want to use them to inform their decisions.
With this in mind, Charles developed a ratings system for Congress and state legislatures that scores actions taken relating to firearm legislation from a pro-regulation point of view. Charles selects and scores legislation based on his research with a single underlying goal: fewer guns in fewer places for fewer reasons. Charles recently specified this by using a framework of legislative goals developed by States United to Prevent Gun Violence and its state-level affiliates. This rating system informs the public, and representatives, why they were given the score they were given. Once he has ratings assigned, he uses them to inform lawmaker profiles and candidate endorsements for sitting legislators who are working towards gun safety and challengers who would be an improvement over the gun regulation “status quo”.
Tackling an Enormous Project
When Charles first started compiling information for candidates and establishing his scoring system, he, like so many people do, began with a master excel spreadsheet. Charles maintained this sheet by going to every state page and searching for, reading, and then scoring legislation. As someone who has spent plenty of time searching state legislature websites looking for info, I imagined all that work and thought “Yikes!” According to Charles the hardest part when getting was the “first dump”. Figuring out what the language looks like, getting used to consuming and translating it, and reading everything he could find about firearms from all 50 states. Over time he was able to hone in on what kinds of legislation mattered, how he wanted his scoring to work, and established criteria to consistently determine which bills to include in his repository.
Charles says it’s useful to cast a much wider net than you may think you need because the more data you get and the more data you have, the more clear and concise your understanding of the topic becomes. If you only look at items that go to the floor, that’s just part of the picture. By including all bills, even bills that Charles knows will not go anywhere, he can form a clearer more fulsome picture of what is happening in a state. Charles also wants to respect the time and effort put into writing legislation. If someone takes the time to write a bill, he feels someone should read it and pay attention to it. When looking at how representatives should be scored, Charles believes sponsorships should count almost as much as the floor votes. Just because a bill did not get a vote does not mean the representatives were not still advocating for whatever was in the bill.
Finding a Better Way
Luckily for us, Charles stumbled across BillTrack50. With the broad understanding he had already gained by looking at so much legislation, along with some technical query writing help from Karen, Charles was able to refine his searches, making wading through the massive number of bills relating to firearms much more manageable. Charles says spring is his busiest time and it can be hard to keep up on legislation, but he knows the volume of new bills will become more manageable as the year progresses. I think this mirrors the experiences of many of our 50-state clients; if you can just hang on through the beginning of the sessions it will get better after a month or two.
Charles now uses a few of BillTrack50’s tools to help organize and digest bills coming in. Primarily Charles uses alerts to help to keep up with what new legislation may need a closer look. If the legislation deals with any of the priorities outlined on his site, he adds it to his master bill list. He then works through his list using the keyword highlighter to help efficiently score and categorize the bills and moving them to their appropriate state scorecard.
The resulting scorecards give users an idea of how a state (or Congress) looks when it comes to introducing, hearing, and passing pro-regulation firearms legislation. Scorecards also give people the ability to see where how individual legislators are performing based on their votes and sponsorship. Check out LEAP Forward’s US Congressional Report Card for example. Charles explains in more detail how to use his scorecards here and you can look at your state specific scorecard by choosing your state here and then clicking on the “report card” link below the report card picture.
Final thoughts on legislative trends from Charles
Like many things in life, Charles has noticed that his legislation follows trends. There are similar waves that come over states relating to the legislation they propose, whether it be concealed carry reciprocity or banning bump stocks, new ideas are always being proposed and spreading. One interesting item he has noticed is the legislation relating to firearms has shifted from legislation almost solely proposed by Republicans to more items being proposed by Democrats.
A major concern Charles has with pro-regulation legislation is that items that would have been a huge step forward 10 years ago and would have actually made a difference will now get passed and that will be the end of it. It is too little too late but people will just accept the small victory and move on. Charles likened this idea to climate change. There are things we could have done for climate change 10-15 years ago that would have been huge, but now days, the same changes won’t even make a dent. He does not want any victory laps for any of the “the least that we can do” kinds of legislation that gets passed.