The Solution to a Deadly Public Health Crisis

There is only one thing Brady: United Against Gun Violence (Brady) Chief Development and Engagement Officer Liz Dunning wants you to know: The leading cause of death for children is preventable. 

Four years ago, Dunning sat across the table from her seven-year-old son, Max. They were having dinner when Max said he was concerned about doing his first shooter drill tomorrow at school. The classmate he had been paired with was talkative, and Max worried that they wouldn’t be quiet enough.

“You can’t have those conversations with your child and not know that something is wrong in our country,” says Dunning. “Yet the biggest challenge I face in my role at Brady is speaking with folks who think gun violence is an issue that is too big to do anything about. But when you think about getting into a car and putting on a seatbelt or understand intuitively that you’re not allowed to smoke in a restaurant, you can see that we have the power to make permanent change in gun violence as a public health issue.”

Responding to the terrible tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, Brady helped pass the first federal gun legislation in 30 years. Rates of gun death and injury have lowered meaningfully, but gun violence still remains higher in the USA than in any other developed country. To live in a world where our children don’t have to attend school shooter drills, we need a cultural shift. 

Brady is partnering with Hollywood producers, actors, screenwriters, and showrunners to depict more realistic gun use on TV and in movies. For example, Brady helped the team working on S.W.A.T., a TV show featuring law enforcement, portray safe storage of a service weapon in the home, a legal requirement in most states. Then, earlier this year, Brady joined forces with creative agency McCann New York to launch a national campaign to shift perspectives around guns and gun ownership in America. This strategic partnership comes at a critical time in our nation with guns now the number one cause of death for children, surpassing automobile accidents and cancer as of 2020.

Brady has also partnered with the Ad Council on their End Family Fire campaign to circulate public service announcements on safe gun storage within the home.  

“We know that access to a gun increases the risk of suicide by 300%. In fact, two thirds of gun deaths are accidental gun injury and suicide. It is realistic to say that 70% of those deaths would be prevented through safe gun storage,” explains Dunning. “By tomorrow we could cut gun violence in half by storing guns safely.”

As for impact, viewers of the End Family Fire public service campaigns were 310% more likely to research safe gun storage, and 48% took action to store their guns more safely. 

“We know that when people see the ads and they think about the issue, they take action,” says Dunning. “We don’t have to wait for political action to make progress on the number one killer of our kids.”