To: President Donald Trump

President Obama: Proclaim December to be "National Children and Gun Violence Awareness Month"

To protect our children, a campaign to develop awareness of the dangers posed to children by the prevalence of guns in our communities is necessary. To that end, we, the undersigned, are asking President Obama to proclaim the month of December: "National Children and Gun Violence Awareness Month."

Why is this important?

As noted in a recent report of the Children's Defense Fund, U.S. children and teens are 17 times more likely to die from a gun than their peers in 25 other high-income countries combined. In 2010, children and teen gun death rates in the U.S. were over four times higher than in Canada, nearly seven times higher than in Israel, and nearly 65 times higher than in the United Kingdom. [CDF, "Protect Children not Guns Overview," p.1]
The events in Newtown, CT in December 2012, were unimaginable, and yet, thus far, our nation has been unable to make legal and cultural changes to sufficiently protect children from the effects of gun violence. A campaign to develop awareness is necessary.
We must never forget the horrible massacre of school children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary in December of 2012. We must also be mindful of the children we may or may not hear about but whose death by gun violence most assuredly is felt deeply by their families, friends and communities.
The proclamation of December as "National Children and Gun Violence Awareness Month" will honor the memory of those we have lost and build the awareness needed to create lasting change.