For many months we’ve heard that there is no common ground, no consensus in the United States any more. So what can one expect from a group (GunSenseUs) with a name rhymes with consensus? Can it get anything done?
In a word, yes.
We share the same goal as many other groups: To reduce gun injury and death. After all, the loss of 40,000 people a year to death by gunfire is concerning. More than 80,000 other men, women and children are injured.
From our founding, we’ve worked from the important realization there are already many areas of agreement on gun policies that could achieve these goals. It was just hard to realize that amidst all the name calling.
We also realized that on this issue, as is the case on on many issues, most people are “in the middle” and want balanced solutions.
How do we achieve a balanced solution working from existing areas of agreement?
We go about it in two ways:
1. Educating our communities about gun violence, its causes, and possible solutions through changes in individual behavior and changes in law.
2. Identifying areas of consensus on changes in gun law and bringing people together to ask our elected officials to make those changes.
How do we define “consensus”? We look for proposals where a large percentage of both gun owners and non-gun owners agree. To ensure we use a balanced approach, we use non-partisan polls as the sources of that data.
Our Safe B.E.T. agenda is focused on three such policy proposals:
- B – Background check for every firearm purchase.
- E – Extreme Risk Protection Orders
- T – Training before firearm purchase
These are policies that respect the right to own firearms but balance that with considering the safety of ALL residents.
After all, the “Us” in our name GunSenseUs, means working for safety for us all…
How will you help?