January 23, 2023 : To motivate families and communities to take an active role in safeguarding children from gun violence, leading healthcare procedures across Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey have united thousands of hospitals and health institutions in a nationwide public awareness and education drive.
The campaign, “It Doesn’t Kill to Ask,” concentrates on providing caregivers, parents, and society members with actionable plans to speak up about safe gun repository and help them feel empowered to ask other parents about credentials to guns in a homes their child might see.
Gun violence needs a comprehensive approach to prevention and treatment through community instruction, outreach, and advocacy. A crucial part of precluding is normalizing conversations about gun storehouse. The campaign comes when an average of 13 children pass from guns every day, making guns the leading reason of death in children.
Via a series of print, broadcast, and digital public service communication, along with a website, the movement will highlight that access to unlocked guns may direct to death, suicide, and gun violence, making it more likely that kids will die from firearms than cancer or automobile mishaps. The website provides tips on how to talk with other parents and families regarding safely stored guns. It facilitates making this conversation as usual as questioning about pets or food allergies before a meeting.
Given the bulk of gun violence across the tri-state area, and in Philadelphia in certain, 13 regional hospitals and health systems are collaborating to face this problem together, as they’ve done to encourage masking during COVID-19 and other measures to help protect public health in our neighborhoods.
The movement is spearheaded by Northwell Health, New York State’s most comprehensive health system.