Some days it can seem like we should just give up. You’re just processing one senseless mass shooting in Las Vegas when you find out there has been a mass killing in Florida. But there’s no time to think about that because your television is saying that there’s a shooter on the loose in North Hollywood, and there has been another high school shooting in Oregon. It can lead to despair.

But we’ve had many similar battles in this country before. Did anyone foresee an African-American becoming president just 40 years after the raging battles for civil rights in the 1960s? Ten years ago, when gay marriage bans were sweeping the nation, did anyone think we’d be at a point where Oklahoma, Kentucky, Utah and Texas have all been told by judges that marriage equality is here to stay?

The truth is that as much as there’s a sickening amount of gun violence on display today, we’re seeing the end of an era when virtually nobody challenged the blood-drenched greed of the National Rifle Association. That has now changed. Even if Newtown didn’t change our federal laws, it was a turning point.

Here are 5 things you can do right now that will help bring sane gun laws to America sooner than you might think possible.