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Join our team in this work! Monthly meetings take place on the third Thursday of each month, 3:30-4:40 p.m., in person at church and online via Zoom.
Unity’s Gun Violence Prevention team has for some time partnered with Protect Minnesota, a statewide organization that lobbies to prevent gun violence though engagement, advocacy and community led solutions. Protect Minnesota envisions a state in which the systematic inequities that cause gun violence are eliminated, ending prominent manifestations of gun violence: homicide, suicide, community gun violence, police gun violence.
We know guns need to be kept out of the hands of those who represent a danger to themselves or others. Mental illness is a factor only 4% of the time in interpersonal gun violence; guns are a factor 100% of the time. Materials provided by Protect Minnesota inform us that 45% of our Minnesota friends and neighbors have at least one gun. We are reminded that in our conversations with those who hold varying points of view — especially during the state legislative session — we need to speak in a way that shows we know most gun owners are safe and responsible and support common sense gun laws. It is a terrible mischaracterization to make all gun owners sound as though they support the extreme mission of the gun lobby. Protect Minnesota acknowledges that hunters have always understood the importance of gun safety but that of concern is the growing proportion of gun owners who don’t have a hunting background and haven’t passed gun safety courses. |
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