Amy Schumer Responds to Open Letter About Trainwreck Shooting

Nearly a week following the Lafayette, Louisiana theater shooting where two women were murdered during a screening of Trainwreck, Sarah Clements, the daughter of a Sandy Hook survivor, posted on open letter to Amy Schumer. In the letter, Clements calls on the actress to “demand change” and “Be a voice for our generation and for women — two groups who make up most of the victims of the gun violence in our country.”

After outlining the sad statistics that show a clear link between gun violence and gender, Clements urges Schumer to join celebrities like Sarah Silverman and Kristen Schaal and become a public advocate for gun control. Clements writes:

Your movie — which was so well-received, so brilliant, so you — will now forever have this shooting attached to it. You’ve been caught in the middle of our country’s terrifying, unending war with itself, our sick and twisted relationship with the gun lobby, which tells us we need guns for anyone, anywhere, anytime. Search your movie “Trainwreck” on Google and a scroll-down suggestion will now be “Trainwreck shooting.”

A showing of your film — an honest, unapologetic celebration of women’s rights to our bodies, decisions, and independence — was the place a middle-aged man who, “opposed to women having a say in anything,” chose to commit a mass shooting.

It looks like Clements’ letter got Schumer’s attention. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Schumer tweeted a response this morning in which she signaled that she had not only read Clements’ letter, but that she will likely respond.

Schumer’s tweet mentions Mayci Breaux (her name was originally misspelled in Clements’ post) and Jillian Johnson, the two women who were murdered by John Russel Houser. Houser had a history of domestic violence and was a vocal opponent of what he called “feminine rights.” In her letter, Clements links the Lafayette murders to the gender-motivated 2014 murders at Isla Vista.