The students from Parkland joined with young people who’d survived other mass shootings and young people who live in cities that are burdened by gun violence on a daily basis and created a movement. They fundamentally shifted the conversation about guns from a sole focus on the right to bear arms to a focus on the right to be safe. With help from long-established gun control organizations, they achieved improvements in state gun laws, changed gun sales policies at major corporations, and pressured federal policymakers to pass legislation (some of which was discussed in Congress last week). But there’s still so much to be done. PI’s new Moving Upstream podcast features a conversation with Lisa Fujie Parks and Alisha Somji about what communities can do—and are doing—to reduce gun violence through strategies that treat this violence like the preventable public health crisis it is. This work may be flying below the radar of the national media, but it demonstrates what’s possible even as the fight for stricter federal gun safety laws and other policies have yet to be won. As an organization that understands the power of prevention, we will continue to stand with the movement to prevent gun violence as well as with the advocates who are working to prevent all forms of violence. Together, let’s keep pushing for the changes we need to make sure all the places where people live, work, play, learn, and pray are safe from violence. |
