Who We Are

Survivors of gun-related tragedies, firearm owners, rural and urban residents, veterans, doctors and nurses, researchers, and local community members and leaders— working in a collective effort to create safer communities for everyone.

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Safer communities are possible

Learn more about the issues most affecting our fellow Oregonians

Keeping kids safe

Preventing firearm suicides

Supporting our Veterans

Preventing school & mass shootings

Keeping illegal guns out of communities

Preventing homicides & shootings

We lose more than 700 Oregonians to gun tragedies each year.

The Oregon Veteran and Service member suicide rate is 40% higher than national average, with an average of 130 Veteran suicides each year.

Rural Oregonians lose community members to firearm suicide at rates 3x higher than those in other cities.

Oregon ranks 12th worst in the nation for youth firearm suicides, with Native, Black and Latino/a/x youth suicide rates continuing to increase.

Black men in Oregon are disproportionately affected by gun homicides, representing less than 3% of the total population but 50% of all homicide victims.

In 2023, there were more than 1,000 non-fatal shootings in the Metro area.

Salem has faced a 100% increase in shootings over the past 5 years.

50% of Oregon youth report worrying about a school shooting on a weekly basis.

Firearm injury Emergency Room visits each year: 700+.

Over 20,000 crime guns came from Oregon from 2017-2021.

Many households in Oregon still have at least one firearm unsecured, where an unauthorized person or child could access them.

On Valentine’s Day in 2017, my teenage son, Will, tragically died by firearm suicide. At that time, Will was a senior in high school. He was on the Varsity Cross Country and Track teams, and was looking forward to attending Oregon State.

On the night Will died, he was experiencing a very severe mental health crisis - and there was a fully loaded handgun, unsecured and accessible, in the house where he was staying.

I know in my heart that Will did not want to die. Like many other teens who die from suicide, there were no warning signs. This is why secure gun storage matters so much. It prevents access to the most lethal means, even without warning signs.

I retired from a 26 year career in law enforcement, where I carried a firearm as a part of my job. As gun owners, we have a duty to secure our firearms - and this duty saves lives.

– Carol Manstrom