Grantee Highlight: The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence is working to make our communities safer

Note from the CREDO team: This March, the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding this month from CREDO members will help EFSGV advocate for effective gun violence prevention policies that save lives.

Read this important blog post from [name and title] below, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this March.

Gun violence in America

Gun violence in America is a public health crisis. Solving the problem will require public health-centered solutions focused on the conditions that create gun violence. That’s what the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence (EFSGV) works toward every single day: advancing evidence-based solutions to save lives and make communities safer.

As EFSGV strives to make gun violence rare and abnormal, we do so from a strong, mission-driven foundation. EFSGV was founded in 1978 in the wake of the civil rights movement and other nonviolent movements of the 1960s. Our first president, Mike Beard, interned for John F. Kennedy and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His understanding of how gun violence destroys lives and communities was shaped by watching both leaders struck down by assassins’ bullets. His dream was an America where families would be free from gun violence – one where we settle our differences peacefully and democratically.

Advocating for change

Decades later, EFSGV remains driven by that same purpose. We have made real progress in tackling the epidemic of gun violence by helping to pass more than a dozen new state laws in the last two years. Additionally, Our executive director, Josh Horwitz, testified before Congress about the life-saving impact of extreme risk protection order laws, convincing even pro-gun lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to acknowledge the positive nature of these laws. We have also faced the problem of armed insurrection head on by issuing a new report with recommendations for states and localities fighting extremism.

EFSGV is committed to centering racial equity in our work. Gun violence and societal inequities are inherently connected. We have drawn attention to the linkage between permissive gun laws and racist violence that undermines the community trust necessary to reduce gun violence and sought policy changes to disarm hate. Only by achieving equity in the gun violence prevention movement will we see lasting change that saves lives and creates safer communities. One such invaluable resource that will lead to effective and equitable policies is our new racial equity impact assessment tool, which helps gun violence prevention groups place impacted communities and their lived experience front and center in their work.

While advocating for change, EFSGV has also stood strongly against efforts that would make communities less safe by undoing the progress we have made. With two dozen co-signers, EFSGV led an effort to file an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in NYSPA v. Bruen, arguing against efforts to weaken firearm regulations in public spaces. As states seek to impose dangerous “stand your ground” laws, EFSGV has been fighting back against the deadly impact of such legislation that disproportionately impacts communities of color.

You can help

While we have achieved so much progress, many challenges lie ahead. That’s where you come in. With additional resources, EFSGV will be better able to provide support for lawmakers and local partners in states where pro-gun advocates are making a concerted push to expand the rights of gun owners at the expense of community safety. While the public’s attention is often focused on Congress and the White House, in truth many of these battles are being waged locally, often out of the headlines. With your help, EFSGV can continue to provide a counterbalance to these groups at the state and local level and help defend our right to live in safe communities and prevent future victimization from gun violence.

EFSGV is hardly alone in the fight for gun violence prevention. But many of our peer organizations look to us for our unique public health perspective, and with your help our support of the greater gun violence prevention movement will be even greater.

You have the power to make our movement stronger. Join us.