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2024 in Review

Thank You for All You Do! Look What We Did Together

Since its founding in 2013, Grandparents for Gun Safety (GGS) has worked to keep our community safe from gun violence. GGS focuses on saving lives through the signature program Lock It For Love by providing high-quality gun locks throughout the metropolitan area. Since 2017, GGS has distributed more than 7,700 locks at nearly 300 events in 128 Kansas and Missouri ZIP codes.

In addition to Lock It For Love, we continued working for gun safety through these strategies:

EDUCATE

Education and building awareness are the first critical steps to making this community safer from gun violence. In 2024, GGS:

  • Presented thought-provoking monthly public programs to 60-80 attendees, featuring local experts addressing topics such as the impact of guns in domestic violence, trauma in children witnessing gun violence, and listening to gun owners.
  • Presented the 11th Annual Community Forum with the theme Gun Safety: Making Change Happen. More than 250 people heard national gun safety activist Fred Guttenberg, and local speakers Jason Kander and Kyle Hollins, share their ideas about making change happen and challenge us to do the same.
  • Produced and distributed a monthly newsletter to 2,000+ contacts featuring local GGS actions, and efforts of national gun violence prevention groups such as Giffords, Brady and Everytown.
  • Maintained a consistently updated website and a robust social media presence.
  • Made more than 25 presentations through our Speakers Bureau to medical students, faith groups, Rotary clubs, PEO chapters and others.
  • Appeared in multiple interviews for TV news segments and had three Letters to the Editor published.
  • Included gun safety information with every gun lock distributed through Lock It For Love that illustrated how to safely secure a firearm and provided statistics on gun deaths, reinforcing the importance of secure firearm storage.

ADVOCATE

GGS supports common ground gun laws that respect the rights of non-gun owners as well as gun owners, and encourages our members to join in advocacy efforts that included:

  • Lobbied for common sense gun reform during legislator visits in Topeka and Jefferson City.
  • Sent postcards monthly to state and federal legislators with statistics on gun violence, urging them to support “good” bills and oppose “bad” ones
  • Emailed GGS members with updates on gun bills and related legislation and provided information to use when contacting elected officials to urge them to support or oppose identified bills.
  • Expanded delivery of suicide warning signs to federally licensed gun stores in Kansas City, KS.
  • Provided Advocacy Action activities at each monthly meeting such as sending postcards to voters stressing the importance of registering to vote, supporting gun sense candidates, getting involved in local campaigns and remembering to VOTE!
  • Added networkers to the Grandparents Uniting for Gun Violence digital network, co-founded by GGS.

PARTICIPATE

To stay visible in the community and keep the issue of gun violence in front of the public, GGS:

  • Attended weekly KC 360 meetings with 40+ groups collaborating to reduce community violence.
  • Participated actively in KC 360 initiatives, including a UMKC neighborhood survey, presentations to Kansas City-area public school districts to share gun safety strategies, and presentations on gun safety data and strategies to six different City Councils.
  • Collaborated with MO & KS Moms Demand Action and Lives on the Line to present a public program on Wear Orange Weekend that recognizes National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
  • Participated in rallies and vigils with Mothers in Charge and Lives on the Line.
  • Met GGS membership and fundraising goals for increased community participation and visibility.

We did all that, while adding a very important accomplishment: Hiring our first-ever Executive Director: Rachel Casey. With this new level of professionalism, we anticipate an even longer list of accomplishments next year.