From The Homefront, Vol. 4
ear Leading Ladies,
We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy.
Last night, We Are America the Beautiful hosted a presentation about Gun Violence online. Our speakers were Doctor Bindu Kalesan of Boston University and Rebecca O’Brien of Moms Demand Action. You can view it on Facebook here. Some major facts from the presentation that we would like our followers to know and share appear below.
More children die from gun violence in the US than from any other cause. More than 3,000 die from firearms each year.
There are 700 million guns worldwide; 45% are owned by Americans, though Americans make up only 5% of the global population.
4.6 million children in the US live in homes with loaded and unlocked guns.
School shootings account for a very small percentage of all US shootings, though there were 24 school shootings in 2018 - one every other week - resulting in 114 injuries or deaths.
Most gun violence affecting children under 13 occurs in the home and is connected to domestic or family violence. Black children and teens are 14 times more likely than white children and teens of the same age to die by gun homicide.
More than 50 women are shot to death monthly in this country by an intimate partner; more than one million women alive today have been shot or shot at by an intimate partner.
Nearly two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides. The US gun suicide rate is 10 times that of other high-income countries; access to a gun triples the risk of death by suicide.
Poverty and mental illness are at the roots of gun violence towards others or oneself. To truly solve the problems of gun violence, we need to combat the issues of institutional racism, homelessness, mental illness, and other issues causing poverty.
A new challenge in the fight to prevent gun violence is the rise of “ghost guns” - guns made at home from 3D printers and not subject to registration or background checks or detected by metal detectors.
This week, we encourage you to learn more about the work of Moms Demand Action and the Gun Sense Action Network. There are many ways to get involved and support their efforts.
We would also like to invite you to our first Zoom discussion group about a Ted Talk, A Solution to Gun Violence Found in US History. If you would like to watch the video, go to YouTube in the next few days and then join us on Thursday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. for the discussion. We will send invitations to our email list to join the conversation on Zoom.
Stay well,
Therese
Judy
Kim
Mary
Leading Ladies Executive Team
LeadingLadiesVote.org