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John, Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and young people. We can’t let anyone forget that, especially in an election year — and especially our political leaders. As we marked six years since the Parkland shooting in February, we partnered with Change the Ref — founded by the parents of Joaquin Oliver, who was shot and killed in the Parkland shooting — to launch The Shotline. With permission from families, this digital campaign used AI to recreate the voices of kids killed by gun violence so they can share, in their own voices, the stories of their lives and dreams that were prematurely ended. Since then, we’ve sent 150,000 messages to members of Congress and brought the stories of half a dozen children killed by gun violence to over 2,000,000 people. This week, we took this campaign a step further and kicked off The Shotline Tour, a cross-country bus tour to bring attention to the gun violence epidemic and its devastating impact on young people. The tour will take place on the “Guac Bus,” a modified school bus constructed by Change the Ref Co-Founder Manny Oliver, in his son Joaquin’s nickname. The Shotline Tour aims to bring more young voices to life and send a whopping 500,000 messages to members of Congress demanding urgent action to stop gun violence. Together, we’re going to make gun violence an urgent conversation in this election. We’re telling the stories of children killed by gun violence at 19 popup locations around the country, pushing the conversation on digital channels, and engaging allies — new and old — to fight for a world free of gun violence. This tour is a wakeup call to our politicians and candidates running for office — either protect our lives or we’ll vote you out in November.
Thank you for joining us, March For Our Lives
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