Our fieldwork with the Newtown Alliance was the most work we have put in yet to really stop gun violence. As we called senators from various states talking about Ethans law, which is when gun owners would be required to secure their firearms in a secure gun storage or safety device, and giving example on how it would help. The host of the zoom meetings son and 3 other family members have been victims of gun violence, Newtown Alliance started after the sandy hook school shooting.

We each called ten senators I was sent to voicemail seven times, a real person answered twice, and there was one with no response. We had a script we use for each senator and we would convey our message that Ethan’s law shall be passed, and it would stop many deaths that would have not happened with Ethan’s law enforced. All in all it was a wondeerful expierence and hopefully we made a difference in the U.S.A to make it a safer place!

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Our fieldwork with Donna Dees, is definetly going to be really helpful. She has a very cool story, and a warming personality. She started the million mom march, which is a protest against gun violence affecting kids. She made it primarily for moms but high schoolers, college students, dads, single people, and so on were also welcome. She started it because at the time in 1999 a white supremacist shot kids at a daycare that were around her kids age. She said the gun industry tried finding ways to market guns to people who aren’t normally the type of person you would expect to have a gun, for example she said she went to a gun store and to “appeal a gun to her” they offered her a pink one.

She also shared with us some horrific stats like, 76% percent of school shooters get their guns from unlocked guns in their homes or from a relative. Gun death statistics have risen since covid. Guns are now the #1 cause of death for kids and teens.. She also mentioned how New York has pretty good gun laws, and if the rest of the country brought their gun laws up to California’s and New York’s level, it would greatly reduce our country’s gun deaths. She is not against ownership of gun though. Another crazy stat she shared was that UK banned guns in the 1990s and the law passed with not too much backlash. The only Scot killed by a gun last year was not in Scotland but he was killed in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also gave us some strategies to help fight against gun violence like, organizing, bold ideas, and persistence. And all of this is just a little bit of what she said, all in all, she taught us a lot.

Questions and answers:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jDLyKGG-0hy3pJMgItjq7BnIjbpuCSYBn5g1TVqATZ8/edit

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Our fieldwork with Marika helped me and my group learn a lot about the mental health side of gun violence. She helped us learn that connecting gun violence and mental health is not the right thing to do. And people thinking that people who have mental health issues are violent, are straight up wrong, and just making unknowlegable inference. She shared chilling and scary facts about the truth of suicide as well and just how common it is, as six out of every ten gun deaths in the U.S.A are suicide, 68 suicides happen a day in the U.S.A alone.

Here is a quote from her that sums up a lot of what she said in my opinion, this is what she said, “The vast majority of gun violence is not perpetuated by people with mental ilness.” Both Gun violence and mental illnes are both national problems. And at that very big ones, as many die from both each and everyday. So in conclusion this fieldwork helped us learn a whole lot!

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