Groups of teens pitched their ideas in a competition on Friday. The winning message, meant to encourage young people to turn away from guns, will be blasted nationally.
By Sarah Karp
About 50 Chicago teens spent the summer being shocked by statistics about guns and violence, realizing many of their assumptions were wrong, and coming up with a social media campaign to try to spread what they had learned.
Some of the teens say they were surprised that stats show few of their peers actually have guns — many assumed more young people were “packing” than actually are. They also believed that having a gun makes them safer, which statistics show it doesn’t.
The program is a partnership between the city of Chicago’s summer jobs programs, community organizations and Project Unloaded, a national nonprofit that aims to chip away at myths about guns.
Chicago Sun-Times: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2025/08/01/chicago-teens-dream-up-anti-violence-social-media-campaigns