Late final month, a Chicago household confronted the unimaginable after 8-year-old Josiah Hooker died and his 5-year-old brother was injured when police say they accessed a gun left unattended at a South Aspect house.
Josiah and youngsters throughout Illinois are rising up in a society the place gun violence stays the main explanation for their demise and the place one in three kids lives in a house with a gun. With this stage of gun possession, too many preventable tragedies are unfolding as a result of weapons get into the palms of kids and at-risk individuals.
Seven years in the past, the Gun Violence Prevention PAC of Illinois and different dedicated advocates united behind the Our One Job marketing campaign with a easy mission: Maintain youngsters protected from gun violence. This name to motion is a price that is aware of no boundaries — no exclusions by ZIP codes, race, politics or faith.
All of us love our kids and wish to see them develop up.
Since then, the Illinois Gun Violence Prevention motion has constantly championed lifesaving insurance policies to curb unlawful weapons and the harm they inflict on households and communities. Whereas we’ve made progress in decreasing murder and violence charges, the presence of weapons stays ubiquitous in our society, with not sufficient protections in our legal guidelines to cease tragedies.
Studies prove that unsecured firearms and guns which might be misplaced and stolen are fueling horrific incidents just like the one which claimed Josiah’s life in addition to suicide, mass shootings and crime in our communities.
This gun violence is preventable, and we are able to do extra to cease it this spring by passing the Secure At Residence laws in Springfield that may higher stop kids, at-risk people and criminals from accessing lethal firearms and inflicting tragedy and violence.
This laws was launched as Senate Bill 8 and House Bill 3688 and is sponsored by state Sens. Laura Ellman, D-Naperville, and Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, and state Reps. Maura Hirschauer, D-Batavia, and Kevin Olickal, D-Skokie. It can improve what it means to securely retailer weapons in Illinois and strengthen reporting necessities for gun house owners when their weapons are misplaced and stolen.
Working collectively, these security measures will promote extra accountable gun possession by enhancing protected gun storage practices and guaranteeing that misplaced and stolen weapons are promptly reported to regulation enforcement authorities.
We have to do all the things we are able to to safe weapons and maintain our households protected of their houses. The statistics bear out the weaknesses in our present legal guidelines.
Fifty-four % of gun house owners don’t lock all their weapons securely, according to Johns Hopkins, and yearly, 350 kids beneath the age of 18 unintentionally shoot themselves or others, Brady United found.
In three-quarters of faculty shootings, the U.S. Secret Service found the shooter acquired the firearm from their dad and mom or different kin. In circumstances of minor gun suicide, an estimated 82% contain a gun belonging to a member of the family, according to Johns Hopkins.
Moreover, yearly, over 380,000 firearms are stolen from their lawful owners, and a College of California, Davis study discovered weapons reported misplaced have been thrice extra seemingly for use in crimes, whereas stolen weapons have been 9 instances extra seemingly for use in crimes.
The affect that Secure At Residence legal guidelines can have on these grim statistics is obvious. In states with sturdy safe storage legal guidelines, unintentional shootings by kids decreased 78%, in keeping with Everytown for Gun Security. Legal guidelines with sturdy reporting necessities for misplaced and stolen weapons helped decrease the movement of illegal guns in communities by 46%, the nonprofit discovered.
A lot has modified since Our One Job was fashioned in 2017, however our values and dedication stay steadfast. All of us should really feel protected at house and see our kids thrive. Our One Job continues this spring, and we urge Illinois leaders to maneuver rapidly.
With regards to our kids’s lives, there’s no time to waste.
Kathleen Sances, president and CEO, Gun Violence Prevention PAC of Illinois
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