OUR MISSION
a bit of context
Gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis of epidemic proportions, claiming more than 40,000 lives and causing an additional 85,000 firearm-related injuries per year. This crisis is a uniquely American issue; Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed in a gun homicide than residents of other high-income countries and women in the United States are 21 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than women in peer countries.
Though gun violence impacts Americans in every zip code and from every background, communities of color bear the brunt of the epidemic, as evidenced from the fact that Black Americans are twice as likely as white Americans to die from gun violence and 14 times more likely than white Americans to be wounded by gun violence. Beyond causing loss of life and the traumatization of entire communities, gun violence is also an economic burden, costing the United States an estimated $229 billion each year, 87 percent of which is borne directly by American taxpayers. For all these reasons and more, Not My Generation is committed to ending the American gun violence epidemic in all of its forms.
Mission
Not My Generation is a nonprofit organization committed to localized, intersectional gun violence prevention advocacy by and for young adults. All of the organizing NMG engages in strives to recognize and account for the reality that gun violence is not simply a stand-alone policy issue, but rather a symptom of wider systemic injustices, particularly as they relate to race, class, and gender injustice. We organize under the shared belief that gun violence prevention must be a broad endeavor that not only focuses on changing gun policy, but also on fundamentally changing the systemic and historical factors, institutions, and societal beliefs that have caused the American gun violence epidemic to persist.
NMG also believes that community members know best what their communities need, which is why we focus primarily on training, empowering, funding, organizing, and connecting local organizers so that they can be effective, inclusive catalysts for change. In line with these ideals, NMG’s coalition model is key to our organizing strategy. Utilizing such a model in cities and communities across the country allows us to convene diverse, intersectional coalitions with young organizers representing their community’s various populations and needs at the helm, and community-based organizations, supporters, volunteers, funders, mentors, national partners, local elected officials, and other stakeholders working in partnership with NMG organizers to assess and meet their community’s needs.
a note On Abolition
As an organization committed to antiracism and the liberation of all peoples, NMG believes in and adheres to abolitionist principles, believing deeply in a world free from police, prisons, and state-sanctioned violence. We know that policing and prisons in the U.S. are firmly rooted in racial capitalism and an unresolved legacy of chattel slavery. We also know that these issues are intimately related to all types of gun violence and thus believe that it is our responsibility as liberation-minded gun violence prevention organizers to be abolitionists. In order to effectively work towards liberation, we must respond to the root causes of gun violence and reject the idea that policing and prisons are solutions for the issues that the state deems social problems, working instead towards a future that centers rehabilitation, community, love, and justice.
We acknowledge that abolition will not be possible overnight and that the eradication of police and prisons is the final step, rather than the first step, in building the type of future in which we want to live. Abolition is aspirational, but it’s an aspiration worth building towards and fighting for. NMG also acknowledges the fear and hesitation that an abolitionist perspective may raise for some people, and invites those individuals into our community to join us in our quest to radically reimagine public safety. Our ability to end gun violence depends on our willingness to engage with, critique, and lean into abolitionism and abolitionist values.
NMG takes inspiration and direction from the generations of police and prison abolitionists that came before us, paying homage to the Black abolitionists that paved the way for our work and leaning into Dr. Angela Davis’ argument that “Abolitionist approaches ask us to enlarge our field of vision so that rather than focusing myopically on the problematic institution and asking what needs to be changed about that institution, we raise radical questions about the organization of the larger society.”
Not My Generation believes that a better, radically different type of future is possible, if only we’re imaginative, creative, courageous, selfless, and patient enough to pursue it.
Read our vision for a de-policed gun violence prevention movement!
