321ACTION: August 26, 2024
This week, we're focused on ways to prevent gun violence that results from improperly stored firearms. Particularly, there are five things that can help reduce the number of young people injured or killed by a gun: Properly securing guns within homes and vehicles, modelling responsible behavior around guns, asking about the presence of unsecured firearms in other homes your child visits, recognizing the role of guns in suicide, and telling others about these common-sense gun violence prevention strategies.
Ready to make a difference?
Here are three ways to get started:
3. Share SMART
Guns are the leading cause of death for children and youth in the United States. Many of these deaths could have been prevented by safely storing firearms. Help us spread the world about this public health crisis by sharing this social media post.
2. Learn about safe storage
Properly storing guns can help reduce the number of gun deaths and injuries, including those caused by accidental discharges. Learn about all aspects of safe storage and gun violence prevention in JWI's Jewish Gun Violence Prevention Roundtable webinar, Children and Guns: What Every Parent Should Know.
1. Learn the facts about permitless carry laws
Permitless carry laws allow people to carry concealed loaded firearms without obtaining a permit. Proponents claim that such laws promote public safety by deterring crime. In reality, a new investigation found that rates of fatalities in states with permitless carry laws increased.
As The Trace reports, "The Trace analyzed gun violence data and found that 16 of the 20 states that enacted permitless carry between 2015 and 2022 saw more shooting deaths — excluding suicides — after the laws took effect than during an equivalent time period before."
+ In case you missed it...
Almost 14% of American women and 6% of American men experience gun threats by an intimate partner in their lifetimes.
Most women who are murdered in the US are killed by a male abusive partner, and most of these homicides are committed using firearms.
A male abusive partner’s access to a firearm increases the risk of intimate partner femicide five-fold.
Join the Jewish Gun Violence Prevention Roundtable and expert panelists on Sept. 4 at 7:30 p.m. ET for an online conversation about the role of firearms in domestic violence, legal remedies, and what you can do to help change the law.