Note: This email discusses domestic violence. If you or someone you know needs support, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline or visit PCADV’s website to find a help center near you.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and our legislators have an opportunity to save lives by reducing the risk that domestic violence incidents turn deadly.

Please use our tool to tell your legislators to support and pass lifesaving secure storage legislation.

When someone is threatened, stalked, or assaulted by a family member, partner, or ex, their survival often depends on one thing: whether or not the abuser has a firearm.

Every year, tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians experience domestic violence. When firearms are used in a domestic violence attack, the attack is 12 times more likely to end in death than with any other weapon.¹

Last year in Pennsylvania, 92 domestic violence victims were shot and killed.²

One of the best tools we have to protect victims of domestic violence is to prevent abusers from grabbing a gun. Use our tool to tell your lawmakers to support and pass lifesaving secure storage legislation.

The best way to store a firearm is to keep it unloaded, locked up, and separate from ammunition. In Pennsylvania, proposed legislation would require gun owners to store their firearms securely, something responsible gun owners already do.

In domestic violence situations, secure storage can create a second of pause that can interrupt an argument from turning deadly.

Even when no shots are fired, abusers often use the presence of a firearm to intimidate, control, threaten, and prevent a victim from leaving a violent situation.³ Removing guns from the equation reduces the likelihood that an escape will turn deadly.

We have the data, and we know that evidence-backed policy changes can save lives. We cannot stay silent while we and our loved ones are in preventable danger.

Please take action now.

In community,

Adam Garber

Executive Director

CeaseFirePA

P.S. We’ve been incredibly close to passing gun safety legislation in Pennsylvania, and every vote counts. Your representative needs to hear now that constituents want safety for our families, first responders, and communities.

Sources:

1. “Weapon Involvement and Injury Outcomes in Family and Intimate Assaults,” JAMA, 1992

2. Domestic Violence Statistics, Pennsylvania Coaltion Against Domestic Violence, accessed 2025

3. “Intimate Partner Violence, Firearm Injuries and Homicides: A Health Justice Approach to Two Intersecting Public Health Crises,” The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 2023

FIND US ONLINE

CeaseFirePA
CeaseFirePA
P.O. Box 60095
Philadelphia, PA 19102
United States
215-923-3151 | [email protected]

If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe.