Today the Biden Administration announced a new executive action promoting the safe storage of firearms to stop gun violence – the leading cause of death of children in America.

The announcement came as more than 140 student leaders and 50 on-campus student newspapers signed their names and organizations to UNC-Chapel Hill March for Our Lives, a student-led group for gun control, op-ed calling for politicians to unite with their generation and end gun violence. 

“Politicians will not have the shallow privilege of reading another front-cover op-ed by students on their knees, begging them to do their jobs. They will instead contend with the reality that by uniting with each other and among parents, educators and communities, our demands become undeniable,” UNC student organizers write. “Our movement is not just moving away from the unbearable pain of our yesterday, we move toward an unrelenting hope for our tomorrow.”

UNC-Chapel Hill March for Our Lives organizers Andrew Sun and Alexander Denza explained that since a graduate student fatally shot a faculty adviser on campus on Aug. 28, 2023, UNC students have demanded a future free of gun violence. After UNC students viral text exchanges between their parents, other students and friends from the day of the shooting reached the hands of the president, little has been done.

” With our prose and protest, we protect not only our lives, but our way of life itself,” UNC student organizers write.

According to The Washington Post tracker of gun violence in the U.S. data, more than 360,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine, with the most recent shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa, where one student was killed and five others were injured in the Jan. 4 shooting. Approximately 76 percent of school shootings are carried out with guns from the shooter’s home.

“We believe that our country has the capacity to love us back. There are bullet-shaped holes in our hearts, but our spirits are unbreakable,” the op-ed reads.

The UNC Chapel Hill March for Our Lives letter has circulated among college and high school students nationwide, appearing in The Yale Daily News of Yale University and The Daily Beacon of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

With the executive action announced today, March for Our Lives shares across social media that the new action will ‘promote safe gun storage, save lives and protect kids.’

What the president’s new actions to promote safe storage of firearms look like:

• The U.S. Department of Education will take new action on safe firearm storage by sending a letter to school principals across the country explaining the importance of safe storage and encouraging them to communicate with parents, families, caregivers, and the broader community about how safe storage can protect students in school and in their communities
• The U.S. Department of Education will also issue a new communications template that principals and school leaders can use to engage with parents and families about the importance of safe firearm storage, and encourage more people to take preventive action by safely storing firearms.
• The U.S. Department of Justice will release a guide to safe storage of firearms in order to provide subject matter expertise on different types of storage devices and best practices for safely storing firearms. This is the most comprehensive guide on safe storage ever released by the federal government.