With tragic news of attacks at a Buffalo supermarket based in hatred and children’s lives lost in Uvalde, we are at a breaking point with gun violence.

The number one killer of children in the United States is firearm-related injury. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, firearm deaths grew by 35%. Gun violence reflects national disparities — from heavily increasing the likelihood of unarmed men of color being shot and killed to being the leading cause of women losing their lives due to intimate partner violence. 

The percentage of gun-related death out of all homicides is higher than in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia combined. 

These aren’t just figures. They represent inexcusable—and preventable— trauma and suffering. And it’s time for them to change. Enough is enough. 

Let me make this clear: schoolchildren and faculty should never have to spot the nearest exit in their classrooms or actively prepare for a shooter to enter a place meant to be safe. No parent should have to question whether or not their children will make it home from school. No citizen should worry about a hate-based, white supremacist attack as they go about their daily lives. Nobody should live in this kind of fear. 

Yet, we are plagued with loose gun laws and more guns that outnumber the number of people in this country that bring these fears to fruition. 

Gun legislation has long been delayed in Congress. While red flag laws could be in the works federally, ensuring that those at risk of committing atrocities cannot access guns, we are all currently living and dying at the hands of state gun laws. 

In Texas, gun laws were weakened by the Texas state legislature so people don’t need a license or training to carry a handgun. Federal laws are simply not strong enough to end this epidemic. We need to start locally and at our state capitols.

Findings show that women are much more likely to vote in favor of gun control—and have been since assault weapons ban bills emerged in the 90’s. Though only seven states and D.C. have enacted laws banning assault rifles, all of them have more than 30% women in the legislature. Women have led the stand for common sense gun legislation, demanding our public safety and working to prevent tragedy.

We need to listen to them, to elect them. It's why we are focused on America's state houses and seeding female majorities in all of them. It’s far past time to close the gap and bring in women who are committed to ending the horrific violence our country faces. 

While we wait for federal legislation to end these tragedies, there’s a tactic we can utilize to end gun violence in our communities: electing leaders who understand what "well-regulated" gun policy looks like. We need elected officials who are committed, not only to healing the lifelong trauma that gun-related violence and death creates, but to ending it in the first place. 

We will continue to seed those leaders everyday. That is our commitment to you. 

-Erin