Gun Violence Awareness Month

Today's guest hosts are Edwith Theogene and Charlotte Hancock, Organizing Director and Communications Director for Generation Progress.

During today's show they discuss how this month is gun violence awareness month, a time to reflect on the gun violence epidemic that plagues this country and disproportionately harms Black and Brown communities. Last year—a year that saw many Americans struggling with loss of family and friends, life-altering illness, and economic crises due to the COVID-19 pandemic—was also the deadliest year for gun violence for decades, according to the Washington Post. And this year is looking even worse. Thus far in 2021, gun violence killed more than 8,100 people in the United States.

Since gun violence can take many different forms—from domestic violence to mass shootings to police violence—we also need solutions to gun violence to be multilayered and multifaceted. Although progress has been made in spreading awareness of the crisis and the harms perpetrated by the gun industry, it has remained extremely difficult to make significant progress to end the gun violence epidemic at the federal level—despite the fact that a majority of Americans support legislative reforms to prevent gun violence.

To discuss what the takeaways from this gun violence awareness month should be and how people can get involved in addressing this epidemic moving forward, Edwith and Charlotte are joined by two expert guests.  They are Bella D’Alacio, Federal Policy Associate for "March for Our Lives" and Greg Jackson, National Advocacy Director for the Community Justice Action Fund (CJAF).

Generation Progress' website is GenProgress.org and their Twitter handle is @GenProgress.  Edwith Theogene's Twitter handle is @WhoIsEdwith and Charlotte Hancock's handle is @CharlatAnne.  Bella D’Alacio's Twitter handle is @bella_dalacio and the handle for March for Our Lives  is @AMarch4OurLives.  Greg Jackson's Twitter handle is @GregoryJackson and the handle for the Community Justice Action Fund (CJAF) is @CJACTIONFUND.