10 Easy Things You Can Do

There are specific things you can do in your own life to help prevent gun violence.

10 things you can do:

  1. Keep Guns Out of Your House
    Ask your parents, guardians and roommates to keep guns out of your home.
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  2. Be Informed
    Know your local gun laws and statistics. Keep up to date via Legal Community Against Violence: www.LCAV.org.
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  3. Be a Witness, Not a Snitch
    Re-frame the ‘snitching’ debate. If you see a crime, tell an authority figure. This makes you a witness, not a ‘snitch.’
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  4. Partner with Community Leaders
    Ask your community leaders for more safe havens in your neighborhood. The more businesses and centers that become safe havens, the less room there is for violence.
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  5. Safe Passage
    Talk to your local police precinct about creating a “Safe Passage” program so you can feel safer getting to and from school or community centers.
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  6. Safe Havens List
    Make a list of neighborhood safe havens for your friends and neighbors, so everyone in your neighborhood knows where to go if they're in trouble.
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  7. Organize Community Responses
    Assign a community leader to organize community responses when a shooting occurs. Getting people out on the street to protest shootings will send a message to your community that you don't want violence on your streets.
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  8. Write to Politicians
    Politicians are there to serve you, and their votes make all the difference when it comes to gun laws. Visit your city’s website, learn who your local officials are and write to them directly about how gun violence affects you.
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  9. Take the Pledge
    Take the New Yorkers Against Gun Violence pledge to never pick up an illegal gun: www.NYAGV.org
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  10. Tell Your Friends
    Once you take the pledge, spread the news around on Facebook and Twitter and email your friends!