Make A 2023 Donation Before December 31st
December 18, 2023
In November, Dr. Tatiana Cardenas, a trauma surgeon in Austin, spoke at Texas Gun Sense’s annual event. She told the story of a fifteen year-old patient she had seen during her rounds. His abdomen was open due to a gunshot wound, and tubes obstructed his ability to speak. He was all alone in his room in intensive care, and when she spoke to him, she assured him she would be able to help him. He raised his hand. Uncertainly, she extended her hand back, and when she did, he grasped her hand and held on tight. He was alone and terrified.
This is the reality of gun violence in our state, and this interaction tells a whole story in one moment. Every year, there are thousands of gun injuries and deaths in Texas, and there is a trauma story like this for each one of those tragedies. In many cases, the victims are children and teenagers, and survivors are left with lifelong injuries, along with long-lasting trauma.
Texas Gun Sense is also part of a multidisciplinary public health project to address a root cause of gun deaths in Texas — the deadly combination of mental health crises and unfettered access to firearms. The project aims to expand access to temporary safe gun storage options for people in crisis and address the firearm suicide epidemic in our state.
We do not have to keep allowing this to happen. We must protect vulnerable Texans.
Gun violence is a public health crisis that disproportionately impacts women, children, teenagers, veterans, people of color, and victims of suicide. Texas Gun Sense is working with partners in cities across Texas to address the violence crisis driving high firearm homicide rates, particularly for Black and Latino men. There are evidence-based community violence intervention (CVI) programs that have shown success in saving lives, and we are working to see them implemented more broadly. CVI programs could have prevented shootings like the one that injured Dr. Cardenas’ fifteen year-old patient.
We continue to lead advocacy for gun safety at the Capitol. During the 2023 Legislative Session, with your support, we successfully added a measure to school safety legislation (HB 3) that requires school districts to educate parents about safe gun storage. Safe storage is critical to preventing unintentional shootings, suicides, and other firearm tragedies. We also supported parents of children killed in the 2022 Uvalde school shooting by pushing for a bipartisan committee vote on the Raise the Age bill (HB 2744) that would require the purchaser of a semi-automatic rifle to be 21 years old. These are two of the many bills that we championed with our unwavering, fearless work at the Capitol. Although the fight continues at the Legislature, we know we speak for the majority on gun safety.
Texas Gun Sense is proud to work with young advocates who want to build a safer future, giving them the platform and opportunity to speak out. The TGS Youth Advocacy Toolkit has been shared widely in Boys and Girls Clubs and PTAs in Texas. We are the leaders of the Texas Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence and co-leaders of the Texas Invest in Us Coalition, bringing many voices together to the common goal of preventing tragedy.
Texas Gun Sense finds hope in action. We believe the work we do will build a strong movement for change and save lives.
This year and next session, we will keep fighting for:
- An Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO), or “red flag” law, to temporarily suspend a person’s access to firearms if they show clear warning signs of violence;
- Background Checks on all gun sales, as Texas currently does not require private sellers to initiate background checks prior to transferring a firearm;
- Laws that keep guns out of the hands of convicted abusers and keep domestic violence victims safe; these laws could have saved lives in the recent shootings in Dallas, San Antonio and Austin.
- Funding for Community Violence Intervention programs and laws to raise the age to 21 to purchase a semi-automatic rifle;
- More investments in safe gun storage resources to reduce unintentional shootings and suicide by firearm.
Please support us today. Thanks to the generous support of donors that believe in our work, 100% of your year-end giving will continue to propel this hope in action forward and directly support our mission to Prevent gun violence and other gun tragedies in Texas through education, partnerships, and policy change.
Sincerely,
Nicole Golden
Executive Director
SPECIAL MATCH: When you make your gift to Texas Gun Sense before the end of the year, your impact will be doubled up to $10,000, thanks to a generous donor.
We are excited to also be able to accept gifts of stock – you can fund our mission while avoiding taxes by donating stock directly via our new online portal with DonateStock in minutes!