Advocacy

The Alliance for Gun Responsibility is a Washington state-based coalition of three separate entities: a public education arm, a legislative advocacy arm, and a political action committee. Their public education arm works with system stakeholders across WA to ensure that their existing gun responsibility policies are implemented effectively and working as intended. As part of this work, they regularly gather national and local subject matter experts to share information and discuss the intersection of gun violence with other issues, including suicide prevention, domestic violence, hate crimes, trauma-informed care, stigma, and racism. 

To support their advocacy efforts, the Alliance also has a constant grassroots presence in Olympia during WA’s legislative session and invests in professional lobbyists who work strategically with WA elected champions to ensure the best possible outcomes for their gun safety priority policies, including extreme risk protection orders and gun industry accountability. The Alliance has successfully run three statewide ballot initiatives and passed almost 50 GVP bills through the state legislature. Via their political giving arm, the Alliance also elevates and supports the candidacies of gun safety champions in elected office. 

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Since 2015, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility's political giving arm has provided a counter to the NRA’s report card on state legislators. With careful tracking and logging throughout the year, the Alliance produces and distributes a legislator scorecard that provides a nuanced analysis of each individual with an overall grade on gun responsibility. By elevating supportive elected and the holding elected who support dangerous firearm policies accountable for their votes, the Alliance has continued to see increase in the number of high grades among elected officials over the year, along with an overall increase in the number of champions in WA. 

CeaseFire PA, founded in 2002, is a trusted voice in Pennsylvania policymaking and a galvanizing force for the general public, members of the media, and policymakers alike to take action to end gun violence. CeaseFire PA has worked on some of the most important, impactful gun violence prevention legislation passed in PA to-date. They have helped expand background checks to cover most firearm sales, passed laws to disarm abusers, and helped secure desperately needed funding for violence prevention efforts across the Commonwealth.  

Enduring policy priorities of the organization include safe storage laws, passage and implementation of Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), universal background checks, and lost or stolen firearm reporting. Their “Common Agenda to End Gun Violence,” coalition includes more than 130 local organizations to advocate for policy solutions that will save lives and prioritize justice and equity for vulnerable and marginalized communities. Their new Deadly By Design storytelling initiative helps connect policy failures to real world consequences through the eyes of gun violence survivors. 

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In 2022, CeaseFire PA’s coalition of local officials, doctors, community organizations, and survivors helped win $105 million investment in community-based violence prevention programs. This is one of the largest investments per capita in the country. This funding went on to help communities respond to rising levels of shootings during the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to a 21% decrease in gun homicides in Philadelphia in 2022, and a 23% decrease in Pittsburgh during the same year. 

Colorado Ceasefire was formed in 2000 after the Colorado General Assembly failed to pass meaningful gun violence prevention laws following the 1999 Columbine High School mass shooting. Emphasizing the importance of commonsense gun violence reduction policies, Colorado Ceasefire champions safe storage laws, extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), domestic violence prevention, suicide prevention, and gun safety education.  

Colorado Ceasefire operates through three entities: a legislative advocacy arm, a nonprofit outreach arm, and a political action committee. In their nonprofit capacity, Colorado Ceasefire builds relationships with community leaders, legislators, educators, members of the public, and other stakeholders to facilitate meaningful dialogue on the ground about the dangers of firearm violence and the possible legislative solutions to it that are politically viable and preserve human life. 

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Colorado Ceasefire shines in its commitment to legislative advocacy. In recent legislative sessions, the organization helped to pass major gun reform laws expected to reduce firearm deaths and injuries in the state. They included: repealing gun industry immunity; enacting an extreme risk law; establishing a minimum firearm purchasing age of 21; instituting a 3-day waiting period for all gun transfers; and banning ghost guns. 

The Coalition for a Safer Delaware (CSD), a 501c3, and their sibling organization, the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence (DECAGV), a 501c4, focus on advancing strong, evidence-based policy solutions to Delaware’s gun violence epidemic. They have been doing this work for more than a decade. DECAGV endorses, passes, protects, and implements gun violence prevention laws in the Delaware General Assembly, while CSD focuses more broadly on prevention education, community learning and state-wide coalition building. Specifically, the organization prioritizes evidence-based policy advancement, and champions legislation through the legislative process and into ongoing evaluation as policies get implemented in Delaware’s communities. Both arms of the organization also advocate for responsible gun ownership practices.  

DECAGV also works to elect gun violence prevention champions at the local, state, and federal levels. The organization’s political and legislative work complements CSD’s outreach efforts and community partnerships to comprehensively and proactively address the root causes of gun violence, enhancing the coalition’s impact and saving lives. 

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On the heels of back-to-back tragedies in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX in 2022, DECAGV successfully advocated for and helped to pass a legislative package---the most historic in Delaware history---that includes increasing minimum age for purchase; banning the sale of assault-style weapons, automatic conversion devices, and high-capacity magazines; strengthening the background check system; and repealing gun industry immunity in Delaware. 

Live Free Illinois is a grassroots organization mobilizing Black churches and communities in Chicago and throughout Illinois to improve public safety and transform America's criminal justice system. Understanding the disproportionately high rate of gun violence in Black communities, Live Free IL aims to redefine public safety within the context of racial justice. Since their founding in 2017, they have operated by building and harnessing the political power of Black churches and people directly impacted by gun violence to influence local and state policymaking. 

Live Free IL prides themselves on prioritizing and organizing marginalized voices, empowering them to lead and challenge systems of racism, domination, and exclusion in the state. Through their Pathway to Power program, Live Free IL builds personalized strategies for interested churches that provides a step-by-step process to developing powerful social justice ministries. The organization also facilitates a statewide and national network of faith leaders fighting to end systemic oppression and related violence, including community violence, police violence, and mass incarceration. 
 

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The Fund Peace Campaign to de-center policing from public safety and center public health strategies instead has been one of Live Free IL’s most impactful campaigns. They met with the IL Black Caucus and conducted individual meetings with Illinois General Assembly members to raise support for a $200M investment in violence prevention funding. The organization then helped to secure the funding and launch local campaigns to win additional funding and support for violence prevention on the local level. After these local and statewide victories, the Fund Peace Campaign has shifted its focus to the establishment of a permanent, fully funded Office of Gun Violence Prevention in Chicago. Led by Live Free IL, Fund Peace Chicago aims to pass an ordinance to establish this office in 2024 to transform how Chicago invests in, strategizes around, and solves the problem of gun violence in our city. 

Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence (MPGV) is a leader in the state-level gun violence prevention movement. MPGV operates through two entities: a legislative advocacy arm and a nonprofit outreach arm. They have secured major victories in drafting, passing, and implementing legislation in their state at a time when gridlock has stymied gun legislation at the federal level. In addition to strengthening MD laws and resisting efforts to weaken gun safety efforts, MPGV analyzes the implementation of gun laws to ensure optimum effectiveness.   

MPGV educates the public and lawmakers on gun violence prevention in many ways, including leading forums on existing laws, emerging legislation, and advocacy trainings; empowering youth and impacted communities to raise their voices; and working with partners to address root causes of violence. MPGV collaborates with partner groups to create a united front and amplify our voices.   
 

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MPGV proudly co-chairs the Maryland Violence Prevention Coalition (MVPC) alongside the Community Justice Action Fund. Using a community-led approach, MVPC elevates the work of groups working on the ground in Baltimore and across MD to prevent and interrupt violence. The coalition has been active since 2018 and is composed of more than 50 community members, including activists, social service providers, healthcare practitioners, students, survivors of gun violence, policy advocates, legislators, researchers, and scholars. 

New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence (NMPGV) has been working since 2013 to promote reasonable gun laws and educate the public about the high emotional and financial costs of gun violence. NMPGV is several thousand members strong and has deep relationships with local schools, school boards, cities, counties, police departments, interfaith groups, and local and national organizations, all focused on identifying and taking action on opportunities to reduce gun violence in New Mexico. They believe that youth are one of the most, if not the most, important voice when it comes to gun violence prevention and have long worked to lift up their voices in this fight. 

Among other approaches, NMPGV partners works with local communities and schools to implement free gun safety education programs and distribute free gunlocks alongside information about safe firearm storage.  
 

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NMPGV has published a Gun Violence Prevention Toolkit that serves as a step-by-step guide for advocates and organizations looking to bring the gun violence prevention movement to their local communities. Highlighting some of their most successful programs such as Guns to Gardens and Murals to End Gun Violence, the toolkit features resources to help conduct public outreach, promote gun safety, facilitate gun buy-back programs, connect with youth, use creative mediums for storytelling, and engage in legislative solutions to reduce and prevent gun violence.   

The Guns to Gardens gun buyback program enables the community to return unwanted, deadly firearms that are then deconstructed and turned into garden tools to create something that helps the community thrive. Murals to End Gun Violence is a youth-led initiative to spread their message of non-violence. 

North Carolinians Against Gun Violence (NCGV) has a 30-year track record of being a reliable resource on gun related legislation and its potential impact on the safety of North Carolinians. NCGV works in particular to reduce the number of gun-related deaths that disproportionately impacts Black residents and people of color. In line with these goals, NCGV leads a coalition of organizations around the state to advocate for the funding of community violence prevention initiatives and programs. 

Beyond legislative work to strengthen current safe storage laws, protect NC’s Concealed Carry Weapons permitting system, and fund community violence intervention programs, NCGV also educates North Carolinians directly about safe firearm storage and distributes free gunlocks to the community. 
 

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Alongside partners, NCGV mobilized and connected a diverse set of partners across NC to advocate for the creation of the statewide Office of Violence Prevention (OVP). In March 2023, Governor Cooper established the Statewide Office of Violence Prevention, the first statewide OVP in the South, through an Executive Order. The newly established office will act as the state clearinghouse to address all forms of gun violence through supporting evidence-informed policies and programs; increasing available grant funding; leveraging federal resources; maintaining resource bank for data, research and statistical information; and facilitating coordination among state agencies, localities, and NGOs to address gun violence comprehensively. NCGV continues to be involved in NC’s OVP as an Advisory Board member. 

One Aim Illinois is a nonprofit organization that leads the state’s largest grassroots coalition working to end gun violence in Illinois by educating, advocating, and translating public opinion into effective public policy. One Aim Illinois pursues a strategy of broad engagement to build support for the goal of reducing violence by working with community partners in community violence intervention, criminal justice reform, and other social service agencies. 

Issue areas of high importance and concern include the impact of gun violence in Black and brown communities, Illinois gun laws, and survivor resources. Focusing on these specific areas related to gun violence, One Aim Illinois leads two important groups: Survivors Council and Public Safety Task Force. 

One Aim’s statewide coalition, including faith and community groups, families and survivors of gun violence, law enforcement, elected officials and other key stakeholders, has helped to enact critical violence prevention policies and education initiatives in Illinois. 

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Among One Aim IL’s successes is the recent passage of the Firearms Industry Responsibility Act (FIRA). FIRA allows victims and survivors of gun violence to hold gun manufacturers accountable through legal action for the harm they have caused by either their actions or inactions. FIRA makes clear that the IL Attorney General’s office can use Illinois’ Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act to take enforcement action against firearms dealers and manufacturers that engage in dangerous sales and marketing practices. The law also prevents firearm product advertising to minors. 

The Oregon Alliance for Gun Safety, founded in 2013, includes an advocacy and legislative arm and an educational arm.  They connect people from across the state—including survivors of gun-related tragedies, firearm owners, rural and urban residents, veterans, public health experts, law enforcement officers, and local community members—in a collective effort to create safer communities for everyone. The Oregon Alliance works to ensure those most affected by gun violence and gun suicides are centered in creating solutions. 

Via their advocacy and legislative arm, the Oregon Alliance leads issue campaigns on gun violence prevention, lobbies for smart policies to reduce gun deaths and injuries in OR, and advances community safety at the ballot.  

Their educational arm leads public education programs across the state by increasing awareness regarding how gun-related tragedies can be prevented through increased secure storage and use of existing laws like Extreme Risk Protection Orders.  

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In November of 2022, the Oregon Alliance successfully helped pass Measure 114, a voter-approved law which restricts the sale of high-capacity magazines and puts limits on firearm sales and transfers by requiring handgun purchaser licensing. Since it passed, the gun lobby has filed five separate lawsuits in an attempt to block this life-saving measure, but the Oregon Alliance continues to defend the critical law and ensure the will of voters to create safer communities is implemented as intended. Through this ballot measure, Oregonians have proved they support action to keep their schools and communities safe from gun-related tragedies. 

Progress Michigan is a communications and research team and media hub for the progressive community in Michigan. They provide training and guidance on successful communications strategies, including digital and social media, spokesperson and message development, narrative building, and more. The organization facilitates monthly polling around gun violence and other issues in the state, consistently finding that Michiganders overwhelmingly support commonsense gun violence prevention policies. Through their legislative advocacy arm they coordinate the Michigan Megaphone, a campaign to build community in MI and amplify advocates’ shared values. Megaphone is an app created specifically to help progressives be more effective online messengers, including a library of post suggestions with captions and graphics for a range of issues and values, including gun violence prevention and protecting vulnerable communities.  

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In April 2023, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law bills to expand background checks for firearm purchases and hold gun owners legally responsible for safely storing their firearms when not in use. A few months later, the Governor also signed Extreme Risk Protection Order legislation into law, supporting efforts to reduce suicide by firearm and firearm-related domestic violence. Engage MI and Progress MI were instrumental in pushing for these reforms, providing polling and communications-related to support to those getting the legislation over the finish line. Michigan’s new ERPO law goes into effect in 2024. 

Protect Minnesota was founded in 1991 as a coalition of 16 statewide groups committed to working together to prevent gun violence. In the 1990s, the group was instrumental in passing legislation at both the state and national levels to keep guns out of the hands of convicted domestic abusers. Today, Protect Minnesota envisions a Minnesota in which the systemic inequities that cause gun violence are eliminated, ending prominent manifestations of gun violence that impacts the state, including homicide, suicide, community gun violence, and police gun violence.  

The organization works with members from every Minnesota community to build neighborhoods where everyone can feel safe from firearm violence, regardless of their age, race, gender, or zip code. They also work with community leaders and trusted messengers to ensure that every gun owner in Minnesota has the tools, resources, and education to practice safe firearm ownership to prevent firearm suicide, accidental shootings, and gun theft. 
 

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Protect Minnesota is deeply invested in addressing the epidemic of firearm suicide that plagues Minnesota. Currently, they are partnering with the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Medical Association on a project to build gun storage maps in areas of the state that are significantly impacted by firearm suicide, which will be disbursed at clinician counseling session at which doctors will help their patients understand how to safely store firearms at home and when offsite storage might be appropriate to prevent a tragedy. 

Texas Gun Sense (TGS) was first convened in 2007 as Students for Gun-Free Schools in Texas, a non-profit organization founded by survivors of the Virginia Tech shooting. In 2013, the organization expanded to become Texas Gun Sense and focus more broadly on improving public safety across the state. Today, the organization engages in legislative, educational, and community-based work. TGS’s main advocacy priorities include extreme risk protection orders, raising the minimum purchasing age, and requiring background checks on all gun sales. TGS fights diligently against dangerous laws from being passed that will weaken public safety in the state. Texas Gun Sense also leads the statewide Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence and co-leads the Invest in Us Texas Coalition to advocate for state-wide investments in community violence intervention measures.  

Beyond their legislative work, TGS facilitates community-based gun safety initiatives and education, including voluntary gun storage access expansion, gun safety engagement for gun dealers, and firearm suicide prevention efforts. 
 

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In 2021, TGS worked with Texas legislators to secure funding for Keep ‘Em Safe Texas, a statewide Department of Public Safety (DPS) safe storage campaign educating the public about safe gun storage and what gun owners can do to reduce firearm death and injury risk to better protect Texans. TGS advocated and lobbied for the DPS appropriation, ultimately securing $500,000 over two fiscal years (2022/2023) for the campaign. 

Additionally, in 2023, TGS led the effort to pass a measure requiring the state to provide safe gun storage information to school districts for distribution to parents and guardians. 

The Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort Educational Fund (WAVE) focuses on gun violence prevention education and awareness, community engagement, and policy through an equity lens. Through their direct community involvement, the organization helps individuals understand the dangers associated with firearms, the risk factors for gun violence, and the myth of defensive gun use so they can make informed decisions about firearms for themselves and their families.  

As an equity-centered organization, WAVE also works to establish and maintain community partnerships, eliminate structural racism, end patterns of under-resourcing in Black and Brown communities, empower marginalized community members, and support community violence intervention (CVI) programs, such as hospital-based intervention services. In their policy work, WAVE advocates for background checks, extreme risk laws, holding the firearm industry accountable, and funding for CVI programs. 
 

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In the past legislative session, WAVE worked with WI state legislators and the governor’s office to ensure that every reckless gun bill passed by WI state legislators was vetoed. They also played a role in compelling WI Governor Evers to allocate $45 million toward CVI programs and victims’ services. To ensure this funding got to the people on the ground who needed it, WAVE continued to lead the Wisconsin Community Violence Intervention Coalition and helped several cities enhance or begin their local CVI programs. 

Founded by Whitney Austin, a survivor of the 2018 Cincinnati, OH mass shooting, Whitney/Strong champions nonpartisan, data-driven, responsible gun ownership solutions to reduce the number of lives touched by gun violence in Ohio and Kentucky. The organization is made up of gun violence survivors, gun owners, community leaders, and violence prevention advocates who are concerned about lives lost to all forms of gun violence. To date, the organization has distributed 14,000 gun locks to community members and trained more than 1,800 people in OH and KY on firearm safety, suicide prevention, and STOP THE BLEED®.  

Whitney/Strong has met with hundreds of local, state, and federal lawmakers, played a significant role in the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, twice filed a gun violence prevention bill with bipartisan sponsorship in KY, and secured two legislative hearings on the bill. Whitney/Strong is also proud to have funded gun violence prevention research projects with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, University of Cincinnati, University of Louisville, and Xavier University. 
 

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Whitney/Strong is proud to represent bipartisan legislative change in Kentucky and Ohio. Since 2019, their policy priority in Kentucky has been Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention (CARR). CARR is a temporary transfer bill centered on helping gun owners avoid misusing their guns during times of crisis in acts of mass violence, suicide, and more. By pressing pause before a crisis moment hits, and getting the gun owner the support they need, CARR can save lives and make gun ownership safe once again. 

CARR is now on its second Republican sponsor, second Democratic co-sponsor, second interim hearing, and third filing. Through bipartisan work, Whitney/Strong works to find the best solutions for the states of Kentucky and Ohio and increase those bills’ rates of passage.