In lieu of our regular October meeting, please join IHH leader Debra Robbin and Ruth Zakarin, the CEO of the MA Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence and the Chair of the Yes on 9 for a Safe MA on Wednesday, October 14 from 7-8 pm for a conversation about what is at stake with this ballot question.
Some Background:
In 2024, MA passed its strongest gun safety law in a decade, cracking down on ghost guns and modernizing safety regulations. Now, the local arm of the NRA wants to overturn this law with a repeal referendum on the November 2026 ballot.
While we have strong support for gun violence prevention in MA, this question has repercussions that go much further than what we do here in the Commonwealth. We have one of the lowest gun death rates but the opposition calls themselves the Civil Rights Coalition and they are hoping that this ballot question will provide a playbook to undermining strong gun laws in other states. We can’t just win this question-we have to win by a large margin!
Gun violence has deep implications for our work to create equitable thriving communities:
- 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience domestic violence in their lifetimes; when an abuser has a gun, the risk of homicide increases by 500%. Guns are used in over half of all DV homicides.
- Women are 5 times more likely to be murdered by an abusive partner when that person has access to a gun.
- Gun violence is the leading cause of death for Black children in the US.
- 57% of firearm deaths in MA are due to suicide.
- 1 in 3 mass shooters was legally prohibited from owning a gun at the time of the shooting.
We hope you can join this informative and engaging conversation about preventing gun violence and why it’s so important!