Fight for gun control heads to town halls after March for Our Lives Activists are urging every member of Congress to meet with constituents in events dubbed Town Halls for Our Lives  Activists are taking their message to Congress members after the March for Our Lives. Photograph: USA Today Network/Sipa USA/Rex/Shutterstock Adam Gabbatt  @adamgabbatt The Resistance Now is a weekly update on the people, action and ideas driving the protest movement in the US. If you’re not already receiving it by email, subscribe. After March for Our Lives, Town Halls for Our Lives After the success of the March for Our Lives, the fight for gun control is continuing at a pace, with activists pushing for every member of Congress to attend a Town Hall for Our Lives next week – even as Republicans continue to avoid meeting with their constituents. The events are being organized by March for Our Lives in conjunction with the Town Hall Project, which works to pressure members of Congress to hold regular town halls in their districts. The Town Halls for Our Lives, being held on 7 April, will focus on gun control and gun violence. The events are being organized by activists, who book venues themselves before pressuring their elected representatives to attend.  Hundreds of thousands of people took part in the March for Our Lives in Washington DC alone. Photograph: UPI / Barcroft Images Nathan Williams, from the Town Hall Project, said so far people were working to schedule town halls in about 150 congressional districts. So far the US representatives Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz have said they will attend Town Halls for Our Lives in Florida, while Nydia Velázquez and Carolyn Maloney plan to attend events in New York. Ruben Gallego, who represents Arizona’s seventh district, has also said he will be at a Town Hall for Our Lives. All five are Democrats. Members of the House and the Senate are on recess for the next week. Recess is traditionally an opportunity for elected officials to meet with constituents in their home districts, holding town halls or other in-person events. Over the past year, however, the majority of Republicans have refused to hold in-person events. During this recess only 14 Republican representatives or senators are holding events, from a total of 289 GOP lawmakers. More than 40 Democrats are scheduled to hold town halls.  The scene outside a town hall meeting held by the Republican congressman Tom MacArthur in New Jersey in May 2017. MacArthur was involved in drafting a repeal of Obamacare in the House. Photograph: Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Many Republicans shied away from holding in-person events through 2017 as debate raged over GOP attempts to reform the Affordable Care Act. Those who did attend town halls faced angry questioning from constituents, with thousands of activists attending events across the country to rail against healthcare reform. Williams said he was seeing a similar energy at the moment, but with a focus on gun control. The Republican senator Joni Ernst, who is opposed to banning semiautomatic rifles, faced angry questions at a town hall she held in Iowa from people demanding gun reform.  A protester holds a Donald Trump doll during the Women’s March last year. The March for Our Lives could have a similarly galvanizing effect. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images “In the same I would guess that the energy of last spring was rocket-fueled by the Women’s March, I think this march last Saturday has had the same effect,” he said. “And what’s exciting for us is that it’s not necessarily all the same people – it’s a lot of young people who weren’t reaching out to us last year, and probably weren’t going to town halls last year, that are newly very active and becoming very savvy. “People don’t just want to march and go home. They want to know what’s next. And right now what’s next is organizing these town halls and holding their members of congress accountable.” What we’re reading • Thomas Piketty, the French economist whose work focuses on income inequality, believes Bernie Sanders’ election strategy is “the way to beat back the right”, according to Slate’s Keith Spencer. Spencer has been reading a new paper from Piketty – Brahmin Left vs Merchant Right: Rising Inequality & the Changing Structure of Political Conflict – and says that “at a time when the Democratic party seems to be locked in a battle for its own soul”, it could learn a lot from the Frenchman.