In the last week we’ve seen a big jump in website visits, social media follows, and emails as a result of the media blitz announcing my shift from the corporate world and into the non-profit one. It was a very big decision that required much thought and I’m grateful the news instigated new interest. This issue is so very complex, with tens if not hundreds of underlying causes, and I’m in need of all the support I can get.

If you are completely new to me and Whitney/Strong I’ll give you the elevator speech. I was unlucky enough to find myself in a mass shooting on 9/6/18 at my workplace in Cincinnati, Ohio. On the flip side, I was lucky enough to survive twelve bullets and return to my family in Louisville, Ky. I cannot turn my back on this issue that I’ve experienced so intimately and thus, founded Whitney/Strong to reduce gun deaths through responsible gun ownership.

I do believe we have a problem. Approximately 100 Americans a day are dying as a result of gun violence. Homicides are up. Firearm suicides are up. Mass shootings occur on a weekly basis. The problem is obvious. Unfortunately, we’ve reached a point in American culture that the very act of acknowledging the problem forces you into one political party or mindset.

At Whitney/Strong we will continue to fight the stereotypes. My board consists of gun owners and non-gun owners. Democrats and Republicans. We aren’t here to talk about whether guns are good or bad as this question is meant to divide us. We aren’t here to demonize the approximately four out of 10 U.S. adults who live in a gun-owning household. And we aren’t here to pin the problem solely on our country’s mentally ill as most are non-violent. You see, I could go on and on with the mistruths and dogmas you’ve been fed relative to this problem. I won’t though. It is the antithesis of what we stand for as we believe this problem requires critical thinking.

I do believe our Whitney/Strong approach is uniquely crafted to make progress. We spent nearly six months reviewing potential solutions before landing on three that met our criteria. And what were the criteria you ask? Simple: the solutions must be evidence-based, i.e. proven to be effective, and majority-supported. To learn more about those three solutions focused on enforcing the laws that exist, suicide prevention, and Extreme Risk Protection Orders, please click here.

So I challenge you to break away from those dogmas. Get comfortable with acknowledging the problem and an organization that will fight to solve it in a unique way. Review our solutions and guiding principles to see if there’s anything there you can’t get behind.

I look forward to gaining your support. All human beings are worthy of life and your willingness to fight.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — The United States Declaration of Independence