Posted on June 30, 2022
A grocery store in Buffalo. Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Parkland. Sandy Hook. Las Vegas Route 91. Charleston. Pulse nightclub. Enough is enough.
Note from the CREDO team: This July, Brady: United Against Gun Violence is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help Brady bolster its on-the-ground programs in areas most impacted by gun violence, help it hold the gun industry accountable in court, promote safe gun storage and more.
Read this important blog post from Brady’s Grants Coordinator Meera Marhoefer, 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 July.
Gun violence in America is a national emergency and a raging public health epidemic. Every day, more than 300 people are shot and more than 100 are killed with guns. Gun violence has become the leading cause of death for children in America. It causes low birthweight babies in our impacted communities because of the stress faced by mothers. It costs our healthcare system $3.5 billion a year. It rips apart families and loved ones. And yet it’s entirely preventable — if we enact sensible solutions.
Gun violence is a complex public health issue with many forms. Complex issues call for comprehensive solutions — and that’s what Brady has been leading the charge on for more than 40 years. Our philosophy at Brady is that we must work across Congress, courts, and our communities in order to end our nation’s gun violence epidemic and save lives.
Winning Lifesaving Legislation Across Congress and Statehouses
On the heels of the tragedy in Uvalde, we are at a turning point in the movement to end gun violence. Thanks to Americans everywhere rising up to join us in demanding action, Congress just passed the first gun violence prevention legislation in nearly 30 years. The last time this happened was when our namesakes, Jim and Sarah Brady, passed the 1993 Brady Background Check Bill. After decades of deadly federal inaction, this legislative progress is the breakthrough our movement needs to save lives. But we need to ensure it’s just the first step of many.
With your support, we’re making life-saving progress in state legislatures across the country. We helped lead New York in passing a package of 10 lifesaving gun violence prevention bills — one of which will implement handgun ‘microstamping, helping law enforcement solve gun crime and end cycles of violence. We also worked with Maryland and Illinois to ban homemade, untraceable “ghost guns” and the parts and kits used to build them. In Washington State, we banned ghost guns and high-capacity magazines. In both Washington and Colorado, we passed legislation to protect our democracy by keeping guns away from polling places. And in Delaware, in honor of Keshall ‘KeKe’ Anderson, a Brady Legal client who was shot and killed, the state passed the nation’s first bill to repeal unparalleled gun industry protections that block gun violence victims and survivors from having their day in court.
Changing Cultural Norms and Promoting Responsible Gun Ownership
Every day, eight kids are unintentionally injured or killed as a result of family fire, which is a shooting involving an improperly stored or misused gun from the home. Our nonpartisan End Family Fire program educates gun owners about the lifesaving role of safe firearm storage to prevent these tragedies. Unintentional shootings, suicide, and intentional shootings are all forms of family fire; which has an outsized impact on young people, the veteran community, and firearm owners.
But End Family Fire is making a lifesaving difference. Our latest polling shows that 73% of gun owners who have seen our safe storage ads agree that storing all of their guns locked and unloaded reduces the risk of someone dying by suicide in their home — a stark increase from when we launched the campaign years ago. We know that only when the gun-owning community is welcomed into the conversation will we truly be able to End Family Fire.
Winning Legal Reforms and Taking the Gun Industry to Court
Brady Legal is our nation’s longest-standing public interest law organization. We take on the gun industry in court, holding it accountable, preventing gun trafficking and illegal sales, and saving lives. We represent victims of gun violence against gun companies who negligently supply or make guns and we reform the gun industry through impactful litigation. Through our litigation efforts against the corporate gun lobby, we have won over $30 million dollars in settlements and verdicts for victims and their families.