Following a deadly shooting at a Georgia high school, the teen-fueled gun violence prevention organization Project Unloaded urges young people to choose to Live Unloaded
ATLANTA – This morning, at least four people were killed and at least 9 others were wounded in a shooting that took place at Apalachee High School in Georgia. Early reports indicate that the shooter, now in custody, is a 14-year-old boy.
“Only in America does ‘back to school’ mean ‘back to gun violence in schools,’” said Nina Vinik, founder and president of Project Unloaded. “Schools should be unquestionably safe, but until we change the conversation about guns in America, history will continue to repeat itself. Families, and young people especially, deserve so much better. There’s one thing we all can do to break the pattern – we can reject America’s deadly gun culture and choose to live unloaded.”
Apalachee High School marks the first mass school shooting of the 2024-2025 school year. According to Project Unloaded research, at least half of young people worry about being shot weekly or more often and about half also say that they worry about school shootings just as often.
“My heart breaks for the students, school faculty, and families whose lives will now be defined by what took place before and after this horrifying day,” said Lily Lee-Sin, co-chair of Project Unloaded’s Youth Council and a high school senior in Evans, GA. “In my high school and in many high schools in Georgia, it’s normal for teens to have access to firearms. Until we change that norm, and spread the message that our homes and communities are safer without guns around, tragedies like this will continue to reshape – and end – the lives of young people just trying to make it through high school.”
Project Unloaded’s social media campaigns, SNUG and Guns Change the Story, have reached more than 400,000 Atlanta-area teens via social media to share the facts on why they’re safer unarmed since the organization’s launch in 2022.
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