Think globally act locally.
— Yoko Ono
Dear Fellow Activists,
In 2016 Women Against Gun Violence (WAGV) coordinated and hosted Los Angeles City’s first Firearms and Suicide Prevention Summit. We brought together experts and activists from many disciplines to come up with innovative strategies to reduce the number of suicides by gun. Inspired by our Summit, Los Angeles City passed an ordinance requiring all gun stores and ranges to post suicide prevention information. Just last month, the City of Culver City also passed a similar ordinance and now, a new California law requiring gun dealer signage showing the suicide prevention hotline number will go into effect statewide in 2020!
Think globally act locally.
It may be hard to accept but it is unlikely that we are going to get significant and relevant federal gun violence prevention legislation with our current Senate and President. So while we encourage you to support gun violence prevention candidates for our 2020 elections to impact national change, we also encourage you to make change now … locally and in your state!
Focus on your local environment and your small acts will add up, slowly leading to change in a neighborhood, then a community, a city, a state, and so on. This idea has traditionally been associated with the environment and sustainability, but it also applies to gun violence prevention. We call this Trickle Up Action!
Trickle Up Action!
After years of perseverance headed by a WAGV activist, this year Los Angeles Unified School District passed a resolution requiring all student households to receive specific information about the safe storage of firearms. Distribution has begun for this school year and now other school districts and the State of California are considering or have already passed a similar resolution and undertaken a similar distribution.
You Can Take Trickle Up Action Too!
WAGV is working with other school districts, private schools, and unaffiliated charter schools throughout Los Angeles County to distribute safe gun storage information. And we have developed a “How To” protocol to help other organizations and individuals approach their school districts throughout the country to get this lifesaving information out to households where it can make a real difference. We know that safe storage saves lives by reducing suicides, school shootings, and unintentional shootings.
If you want to take Trickle Up Action by participating in our School District Campaign, please email us here.
Here’s another trickle up action you can take. Vote in every single election — local, state, and federal!
Margot Bennett
Executive Director
