Stop Handgun Violence Advocacy Tool Kit.

On Saturday, April 28th, Stop Handgun Violence, M&R, and the Activist Lab came together to provide a community training opportunity around gun safety and advocacy. During this seminar, participants received a foundational knowledge about gun violence and why it is considered a public health crisis, current laws on the state and federal levels, and a toolkit for creating sustainable change through advocacy.

The following toolkit was created by Stop Handgun Violence.

Stop Handgun Violence is a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization that works to reduce firearm injuries and deaths through education, public awareness, common sense gun laws and strategic partnerships.

This Tool Kit is intended to be a roadmap for students and anyone interested in getting actively involved in helping reduce firearm injuries and deaths in your home state by following three steps:
Step 1: Educate Yourself
Step 2: Educate Your Community
Step 3: Change Gun Laws

We tried to keep this Tool Kit as straightforward and informative as possible. We hope that our step-by-step guide helps you educate yourself and others in order to save lives and make your community safer, just as we have successfully done in our home state of Massachusetts which has effective gun laws and the lowest rate of gun deaths in the Nation.

In Massachusetts, Stop Handgun Violence has successfully changed the historically polarized debate between banning guns and unrestricted access to guns, to how can we effectively reduce gun access by dangerous individuals WITHOUT BANNING GUNS.

Since 1994 Massachusetts has enacted effective gun violence prevention laws and regulations on a bi-partisan basis and has reduced the rate of gun deaths by 40%. Massachusetts simply treats guns like automobiles by requiring accountability and responsibility on the part of gun owners, dealers, manufacturers and law enforcement. The only guns that are banned in Massachusetts are assault weapons, large capacity ammunition magazines, bump stocks and cheap handguns known as Saturday Night Specials. We have done this by developing effective media and public education campaigns including one of the largest billboards in the nation, which has become a landmark in Boston. Other initiatives include distributing trigger locks, nationwide billboard campaigns, partnerships with educational institutions, local and national businesses, law enforcement and with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice. We have proven that gun laws save lives!