As teenagers across the U.S. continue to advance the cause of gun violence prevention following last month’s assault weapon massacre that killed and wounded 34 high school students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Boston-based Stop Handgun Violence (SHV) today released an online tool kit aimed at assisting students across the U.S.
Topics covered in SHV’s Student and Educator Gun Violence Prevention Advocacy Tool Kit range from facts about U.S. gun violence and the Second Amendment to tips on how a bill becomes a law, how to contact elected officials, how to pass ballot measures and municipal proclamations, how to organize school assemblies and community events, and how to counter arguments of the gun lobby.
The website includes videos explaining how to use the tool kit and providing information about gun violence and common sense laws.
“This resource will provide students with facts and organizing tools necessary to change gun policy and effectively reduce gun violence on the local, state and national levels. Students helped stop the war in Vietnam; they can certainly help enact common sense gun laws in America,” said John Rosenthal, a gun owner and co-founder of SHV. “Student activists are uniquely positioned to expose the immoral state of national elected officials and their willingness to trade kids’ lives and the public’s safety in exchange for gun industry campaign contributions and unrestricted access to military style assault weapons and easily concealed handguns.”
Since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting of 20 children and six adults five years ago, there have been more than 290 school shootings in the U.S. – including 27 this year. Gun violence in America results in more than 100 deaths, 200 injuries and a mass shooting of four or more people every day.
It is an immutable fact that strong gun laws – such as measures being called for by students and others nationwide – directly result in fewer gun deaths.
“Look no further than urban Massachusetts, which has arguably the most effective gun laws in the nation, as well as the country’s lowest gun death rate,” Rosenthal said.
