Conversations to Help End Gun Violence

Legislative Strategies to help End Gun Violence

“We are facing a public health crisis: Nearly eight American children are shot and killed every day. Anything else responsible for this many deaths would be immediately investigated and regulated. Not a single federal law has been passed in decades to prevent gun violence – not after Columbine and not after Newtown.” MOMS Demand Action

The unacceptable levels of gun violence require a public health approach to education and prevention, including addressing the easy availability of handguns, assault weapons, and ammunition. Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

Work currently continues in the General Assembly to help reduce gun violence by changing the access to firearms.  We are grateful for the work of Lori Haas with the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Gena Reeder from the MOMS Demand Action group as well as our own advocate, Lisette Johnson, and many others.

This is not an easy conversation. This is a conversation that will bring up many issues - some difficult to speak, listen, and hear.  But we must be in conversation.  And we need the tools to know how to act to bring about change, to help end the litany of the dead and traumatized, to bring God's justice into our world. 

These are some of the organizations active in this movement:

Everytown for Gun Safety

Everytown is a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities. Gun violence touches every town in America. For too long, change has been thwarted by the Washington gun lobby and by leaders who refuse to take common-sense steps that will save lives.

But something is changing. More than 3 million mayors, moms, cops, teachers, survivors, gun owners, and everyday Americans have come together to make their own communities safer. Together, we are fighting for the changes that we know will save lives.

Everytown starts with you, and it starts in your town.

MOMS Demand Action

Moms Demand Action supports the 2nd Amendment, but we believe common-sense solutions can help decrease the escalating epidemic of gun violence that kills too many of our children and loved ones every day. Whether the gun violence happens in urban Chicago, suburban Virginia, or rural Texas, we must act now on new and stronger gun laws and policies to protect our children.

Moms Demand Action envisions a country where all children and families are safe from gun violence. Our nonpartisan grassroots movement has grown to include a chapter in every state across the country. We are educating, motivating, and mobilizing moms and families to take action that will result in stronger laws and policies to save lives.

We are facing a public health crisis: Nearly eight American children are shot and killed every day. Anything else responsible for this many deaths would be immediately investigated and regulated. Not a single federal law has been passed in decades to prevent gun violence – not after Columbine and not after Newtown.

For too long, those who stand to profit from easy access to guns have controlled the conversation about gun violence. American families are being destroyed and mothers have had enough; we will no longer stand by and let Congress, companies and colleges turn their back on sensible gun laws and policies. We are organizing to effectively lobby and apply pressure that will result in stronger, sensible gun laws and policies that will protect our children and families. The momentum is with us, and we are in this for the long haul.

American mothers are an important voice that, when harnessed, will wield significant change. We may be accidental activists, but we are the wave of change in America.

Episcopalians Against Gun Violence

“We will no longer be silent while violence permeates our world, our society, our Church, our homes and ourselves. Our faith calls us to be ministers of reconciliation, to give voice to the voiceless and to strive for justice in the name of our Lord.”

Coalition Against Gun Violence

Freedom from fear is a basic human right. People of all races, classes, ages, and sexual orientation and in all communities have the right to be free from gun violence in homes, schools, workplaces, and on the streets.

Gun violence must be addressed as a health, safety, social, and economic problem. It costs our nation thousands of lives and billions of dollars every year.

The unacceptable levels of gun violence require a public health approach to education and prevention, including addressing the easy availability of handguns, assault weapons, and ammunition.