Brady United Against Gun Violence has been nominated for a Project for Awesome 2026 Award, and I am adding my vote in support of their work. Please join me!
For those of us who practice at the intersection of child health and public health, the reason is not complicated.
Since 2020, firearm injury has been the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States. On an average day, 327 people are shot in this country. Twenty-three of them are children. Approximately 117 people die.
Those are not abstract statistics. They reflect the daily reality shaping the nervous systems, classrooms, and communities where children grow and learn.
As a school nurse, I do not experience gun violence as a headline or a policy debate. I see its imprint in anxiety that lingers after lockdown drills, in students grieving family members, and in the quiet hypervigilance that becomes normalized far too early in life. When an injury mechanism rises to become the leading cause of death for children, prevention is no longer optional. It becomes our professional responsibility.
What distinguishes Brady’s work is its sustained commitment to a public health framework. Their strategy focuses on promoting safer gun culture, reforming the gun industry, and passing and protecting evidence-based gun safety laws. This approach mirrors other successful public health movements, from reducing tobacco use to increasing seatbelt adoption, where culture change, accountability, and policy worked together to save lives.
Prevention is rarely dramatic. It is incremental, strategic, and persistent. It requires organizations willing to do the long work.
That is why supporting Brady through Project for Awesome matters. Project for Awesome is designed to elevate organizations that are creating measurable impact in their communities. Brady’s decades-long focus on reducing gun violence through prevention aligns directly with what child health professionals know to be true: injury patterns can change when we commit to changing them.
Voting is open now and will close on February 18. Supporters can visit Brady’s page, sign in with their email, and use a one-time link sent to their inbox to cast their vote.
Vote. Share. Amplify.
Protecting children is not a slogan. It is a sustained commitment to prevention. Because Protecting Children Is Not Optional
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