“This Issue Spoke to Me as a Mother": The Construction and Reception of Claims to Standing in the Gun Debate

This article investigates how social movement actors frame themselves according to what they believe will resonate with audiences. I use a comparison of opposing public-facing figures in the gun debate to investigate how they frame themselves, how their claims are received by the media, and how their claims are criticized by their opponent. I find that both figures portray themselves as mothers to claim standing in the gun debate, however they construct motherhood differently. Motherhood can be constructed narrowly, as the responsibility to protect one’s own children, or broadly, to include caring for the larger community. In using contrasting frames of motherhood, their media reception differs, with one figure earning standing and her preferred framing as a mother at a greater frequency. These findings contribute to important conversations about the strategic choices of social movement actors, the relationship between social movement actors and media, and how motherhood can function as a source of standing.