In response to the shooting at Florida State University, the teen-fueled gun violence prevention organization Project Unloaded asks young people to rise up against America’s deadly gun culture
CHICAGO – At least six people have been hospitalized following a shooting at Florida State University today. The shooting comes just days after another shooting in a high school in Dallas that left multiple students wounded. On the same day as the Dallas shooting, two high school students were shot in Chicago – one fatally. Gun violence is the leading killer of children and teens in the US. And the answer to this crisis isn’t more guns.
“The details are still unfolding, but we’ve been down this road before. The problem is always the guns,” said Nina Vinik, founder and president of Project Unloaded. “Until we make clear that guns make us less safe, young people will continue to live in the shadow of this crisis. They deserve better and we owe it to them to do more to get out of this cycle of violence.”
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. Nearly 60% of young people say that the threat of school shootings and mass shootings strongly influences their feelings about guns and gun ownership.
“My heart breaks for the students, educators and families whose lives were forever changed by gun violence today,” said Esha Ambre, a member of Project Unloaded’s Youth Council. “It’s infuriating that this keeps happening, and it’s a reminder of why Gen Z has to lead the way on stopping gun violence. Clearly, adults aren’t doing enough to keep us safe. We have to be the generation that refuses to normalize terrifying days like this one and rejects the gun culture that brought us to this awful reality.”
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