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I wanted to send you a quick note as we recognize National Gun Violence Awareness Day. One of the core reasons I am running for Senate, and something that drives my work as a Congresswoman, is addressing the issues that are truly – and I mean truly – harming our children. Gun violence is the #1 killer of Americans under 21. That’s not a political statement, that’s a fact. In 2022, over 6,000 children 17 and younger were killed or injured in the United States due to gun violence in our communities, in our schools, by suicide, and by accident.

When I was a kid, the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 21 was car accidents. At that time, car seats were not universal and nobody wore seatbelts, so even relatively minor accidents were very dangerous for children.

So what did we do to go after the #1 killer of kids? We passed national laws requiring seat belts and car seats and started student safety programs. Fatality rates dropped dramatically, especially among infants and toddlers. Between 1975 and 2021, fatality rates dropped 71% among children ages 1-3.

Car accidents are no longer the leading cause of death in children in America. Guns are. Under the age of 21, gun violence is the leading cause of death: in our communities, in our schools, by suicide, and by accident.

As the first Congresswoman to represent two mass shootings at schools – one at Oxford High and one at MSU – I haveI found myself giving the talk on trauma and PTSD that I received when I returned from Iraq to teenagers. Kids. They hadn’t volunteered to go to a warzone, they were in a place that should be a sanctuary—their school.

And while I, like so many Michiganders, grew up with guns and then later carried weapons in three tours in Iraq alongside the military, the issue of gun violence has me by the throat. After the MSU shooting and manhunt, I received calls from Republican constituents that I know to be avid hunters and sportsmen, and they all have the same message: no one can stand to see their children dying in what should be their sanctuaries, and we need to do something to protect our babies.

The reality is that when something is the number one killer of children, you can stick your head in the sand, or you can actually try and do something about it. It’s hard to fathom that there are leaders who refuse to go after the #1 killer of children.

But still, I believe there is hope. Less than 8 weeks after the shooting at MSU, we passed universal background checks, safe storage requirements for anyone who has a child in the home, and red flag laws to remove guns from people who are threatening to harm themselves or others. The federal government can take a lot of lessons from what we achieved here.

The change we’ve seen has been spurred primarily by getting to people’s hearts, largely through threats to their kids. Hopefully, Michigan can be a blueprint for other legislatures across the country. And I won’t stop pushing for reform at the federal level. While it’s a terrible statement, at some point, so many of us will be personally impacted by gun violence that we will be forced to change at the federal level. I plan to be a part of that change when I get to the Senate.

Our first responsibility as leaders is to protect children. Will you stand with me to protect children from the things that are TRULY harming them?

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Thank you,

Elissa
 


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