VIOLENCE POLICY CENTER
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : g******r@v*c.o*g
Mission Statement
Guns killed nearly 49,000 Americans in 2021. Since 1988, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) has worked to stop gun violence through research, education, advocacy, and collaboration. Approaching gun violence as a public health issue, as opposed to solely a crime issue, we inform the press and public about the impact of gun violence on their daily lives, expose the profit-driven marketing and lobbying activities of the firearms industry and gun lobby, offer unique technical expertise to policymakers, organizations, and advocates on the federal, state, and local levels, and work for policy changes that save lives. The VPC firmly believes the answer to reducing gun violence lies in applying the decades-long lessons of public health injury prevention and consumer product safety regulation.
About This Cause
The Violence Policy Center (VPC) works to stop gun death and injury through research, education, advocacy, and collaboration. Founded in 1988 by Executive Director Josh Sugarmann, a native of Newtown, Connecticut, the VPC informs the public about the impact of gun violence on their daily lives, exposes the profit-driven marketing and lobbying activities of the firearms industry and gun lobby, offers unique technical expertise to policymakers, organizations, and advocates on the federal, state, and local levels, and works for policy changes that save lives. The VPC has a long and proven record of policy successes on the federal, state, and local levels, leading the National Rifle Association to acknowledge us as “the most effective … anti-gun rabble rouser in Washington.” Gun violence is not only a crime problem: It is a public health epidemic. In 2021, nearly 49,000 Americans died from gun violence in suicides, homicides, and unintentional shootings. Shockingly, guns are the only consumer product manufactured in America that the federal government does not regulate for health and safety. The gun industry has exploited this unique exemption by designing, manufacturing, and marketing increasingly lethal products, nearly always using crossover military technologies. The inevitable result of this militarized civilian gun industry can be seen across our nation: from mass shootings using semiautomatic weapons with high-capacity ammunition magazines, to vigilante justice meted out by concealed handgun permit holders. At the same time, in the face of declining household gun ownership, the firearms industry is targeting women and even grade-school children as their new potential customers. The VPC firmly believes the answer to reducing gun violence lies in applying the decades-long lessons of public health injury prevention and consumer product safety regulation to the gun industry and its products.