Dear Community,

The Loyola Stands Against Gun Violence committee is heartbroken about yet another mass shooting this week that has taken the lives of innocent people and has forever impacted families, communities, and our entire nation. As a committee focused on advocacy, collaboration, violence prevention, and community, we stand with you and ask that you continue to raise your voice against gun violence. 

This past April, Loyola Stands Against Gun Violence welcomed Fred Guttenberg as the keynote speaker of the Community Advocacy and Violence Prevention Summit. In 2018, Mr. Guttenberg tragically lost his daughter Jaime in a mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida and has since dedicated his life’s work to the reduction of gun violence. Since the Summit, our nation has been faced with several more mass shootings and the tragic and preventable loss of innocent lives. As parents, educators, students, and healthcare workers, the recent shootings in Uvalde, Tulsa, Buffalo, and Irvine have left us broken. Mr. Guttenberg’s message, one we have heard continuously, is that firearm injury and deaths are preventable and gun violence is a public health conversation. However, this conversation does not end after a conference, or a news report, or an email. Loyola Stands reaffirms the need for policymakers to address gun violence, support mental health resources, invest in public safety, and in our communities. 

It is a civil right for students and teachers to be able to meet in safe schools, for patients and clinicians to feel safe in a hospital, and for all of us to be able to safely go about our daily lives without the fear of gun violence. We understand that the longer our elected officials remain in political gridlock, without sensible controls on assault rifles, we can expect that mass shootings will become a commonplace reality.  If elected leaders do not have the political will to keep people safe in worship spaces, grocery stores, malls, schools, and hospitals, then we need to change our elected leaders. We urge voters to carry the issue of gun violence into the polling place, relentlessly, until we have leaders who will keep our communities safe.

We ask you to continue to use your voice and to commit to advocacy against gun violence by:

1. Urging policymakers to take action by strengthening policies around safe storage of firearms, background checks, the sale and trade of weapons, ghost guns and assault weapons, high-capacity ammunition magazines, and gun modification equipment. Contact your members of Congress to raise the issue of sensible gun control legislation and attend your congressional representative’s public meetings or town halls. Call your U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

2. Use your social networks to advocate against gun violence.

3. Wear orange this weekend to bring attention to gun violence and peace.

4. Participate in March for Our Lives and Race Against Gun Violence events next weekend.

Loyola Stands invites you to participate in our upcoming Community Conversations focused on Stop the Bleed training, gun violence policy, mental health and trauma informed care, and emergency preparedness, among other important topics. 

How do we find our hope when mass shootings and gun violence seem to be our new normal? As a community of individuals dedicated to social justice, to healing, to service, and to the lives of others, we find hope in the people we work with who are tirelessly focused on creating change. This is a reminder of who we are. We have a lot of work to do together. 

In peace,

Loyola Stands Against Gun Violence

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