Dear Gun Violence Advocate,

I know that sometimes our fight to end gun violence can seem hopeless. Whenever I’m feeling a need to renew my energy, I remind myself of hopeful messages like this one:

“If we could do more things like this and have the community wrap around us and this problem – I think we can change it, it can change.” 

Carter was one of dozens of young people – many of them survivors of gun violence – who took the long trip to Harrisburg to make his voice heard at our March For Our Lives PA Advocacy Day this past spring. And just two months after Carter and hundreds of others of Pennsylvanians demanded change on the steps of the Capitol? The PA House of Representatives passed two life-saving gun safety bills with bipartisan support.²

Amid the crushing statistic that guns are now the number one killer of kids in America³, there is hope for change on the horizon: young people themselves refuse to accept this reality and are increasingly taking leadership. 

Our records show that you’ve not yet supported these powerful young people by adding your name to our Keep Kids Safe at School petition. Can you take one minute right now to join them and make your voice heard?

Students at the March For Our Lives PA Advocacy Day in Harrisburg this March

Here’s how the four pieces of legislation in our petition would make kids safer at school:

Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) would create a legal process to temporarily remove firearms from someone who is at-risk of committing a school shooting; 

Universal background checks would close off a gap in our system that allows assault rifles  – now the weapon of choice in mass shootings⁴ – to be bought from private sellers without any vetting; 

Safe storage would require that guns be stored securely in the home, keeping guns away from kids and cutting off the source of the gun in over 76% of school shootings.⁵ 

Lost and stolen gun reporting would address a major driver of illegal guns and help stop firearm trafficking to minors.

Policies like these are how we keep kids safe at school – not arming teachers or giving our kids bulletproof backpacks. 

We need to join with youth leaders who are leading this movement. Please sign our petition today. 

Sincerely,
Adam Garber
Executive Director
CeaseFirePA Action

¹ https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/local-students-gather-state-capitol-make-plea-an-end-gun-violence/Z5M3JM4CLBFVPCJMP464XBOWLE/  

² https://www.ceasefirepa.org/general-interest/pa-house-passes-two-gun-safety-bills-with-bipartisan-support/

³ https://www.kff.org/health-reform/press-release/firearms-are-the-leading-cause-of-death-for-children-in-the-united-states-but-rank-no-higher-than-fifth-in-other-industrialized-nations/ 

⁴ https://www.thetrace.org/2023/07/mass-shooting-type-of-gun-used-data/ 

⁵ https://www.secretservice.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/Protecting_Americas_Schools.pdf