Keeping Our Covenant with Children

On Monday the nation paused, again, to mourn the tragic loss of three
children to gun violence at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee,
alongside three adults who cared for them. Again, because according to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at 19%, firearms are
the leading cause of death for children in our country. Again, because
according to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more mass
shootings than days in the year 2023.

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On Tuesday in Washington, D.C., one of the staff leaders on
CDF's federal policy team shared with me how much the shooting
disturbed her. She's among the growing majority of Americans who
remain, as the Rev. Dr. Martin King, Jr. would say, "creatively
maladjusted," refusing to accept these tragedies as the norm. In
our afternoon conversation, we talked about triggers from our lived
experiences, including the loss of my brother in a mass shooting when
I was a teen. In a meeting on Wednesday, a leader from our organizing
team who lives in Nashville, shared how the proximity of the events
impacted her and neighbors.

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CDF is devasted by the loss of children to guns and motivated to keep
our covenant.

We are all shaken. Grieving. Traumatized. Processing. Our leaders are
frustrated with the nation's immoral choice of guns over
children. Our team is even more perplexed by the political inaction by
policymakers on Capitol Hill.

Through it all, we will be faithful to our promise to protect and
provide for children and youth. Preventing gun violence has been a
policy priority for Children's Defense Fund for years. To keep
our children safe, in this critical moment we renew our calls on
Congress to:

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Ban assault weapons;

Require universal background checks for the purchase of guns; and

Fund peace and violence prevention programs in local communities.

A covenant is a solemn commitment, an agreement which forms a
relationship. Ours is embedded in our mission, vision, and values. It
permeates our calls for leaders to #ProtectChildrenNotGuns.

The children killed by guns are the moral owners of our mission.

We owe these young people everything! So, as we call upon others to
act, we renew our commitment as well. This summer, our CDF Freedom
Schools® program will mobilize thousands of children and families
across 30 states for health, healing, and hope to keep communities
safe from gun violence, through our National Day of Social Action. On
the Hill and in statehouses across the country, we will increase our
policy advocacy and inform the conversation with the best data
available. Children's Defense Fund will continue to organize
with young people, and community and faith leaders to keep playgrounds
safe and schoolyards peaceful.
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https:/www.childrensdefense.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Protect-Children-Not-Guns-2019.pdf

We hope you will join us on this moral journey. Let's keep our
covenant to care.


For our children,

Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson

President and CEO



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