With over 15 years of legal experience and a background in gun violence prevention, international law, and human rights law, Tanya Schardt brings a variety of skills to Brady to further its state and federal policy initiatives.
She began her career in civil practice, where she defended individuals and corporations in various cases, then pursued an LL.M. in International Public Law from KU Leuven. For her masters’ thesis, Tanya evaluated the legality of the Second Amendment under international human rights treaties and laws. Tanya continued this line of work at Amnesty International USA, where she helped write a report entitled “In the Line of Fire: Human Rights and the U.S. Gun Violence Crisis.”
As senior counsel and director of state and federal policy at Brady, Tanya works alongside a broad swath of stakeholders — including elected officials, agencies, partners, and grassroots organizers — to advocate for gun violence prevention policies, executive actions, funding, and programs. Since joining Brady, she has assisted in helping pass more than 100 gun violence prevention bills in states nationwide and has worked on numerous bills to combat ghost guns, increase gun industry accountability, and regulate assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.
Tanya earned a B.A. in Communications from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a J.D. from Rutgers School of Law.
We are unique in the movement in that we are survivor-founded and survivor-led. Our leaders and team members who are gun violence survivors deeply understand the solutions that will save lives. We fight because we want to do everything in our power to make sure that no other family suffers the pain and loss of losing a loved one to gun violence.
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