Advocacy
The average hospital bill for each person wounded by a gun in the US is over $250,000; a bullet costs 33¢.
Why is it that we can walk to get any kind of gun, drug or alcohol that we want, but we have to take the bus to get school supplies?
-- Art, 16-year-old TNT Peer Educator
What are we advocating for? Changes to improve our lives. What we can give is an informed picture about our lives that no one else can see. We need to become visible.
-- TNT Peer Educator, Age 16
TNT's Peer Educators are public health leaders advocating for violence prevention policies in their community. They move from being victims to advocates, and work in their communities to limit access to the means of destruction. Peer Educators are trained in how to speak out:
- to adult leaders in the community
- to policy makers
- at professional conferences
- to the media . . . about violence and its impact on kids, and about how young people can be the experts in preventing violence.
TNT's Peer Educators have presented expert testimonies before city councils, school boards, members of county boards of supervisors, and the California State Legislature.
They have been featured in local, state, and national newspapers, magazines, journals, and on radio and television, including PBS, CNN and MTV.
Through these numerous media appearances, they demonstrate to the public that youth can truly be leaders in violence prevention, as opposed to being portrayed solely as victims or perpetrators.
Fact Sheet
Click here to read more facts about gun violence.
In 2005, 1,079,301 high school students across America took a weapon to school at least once every 30 days.
Advocacy Successes
Teens on Target member advocating for solutions to violence
Ban on Assault Weapons in CA
TNT members, with Youth ALIVE! founder Deane Calhoun, provided expert testimony to the California state legislature as part of the coalition to ban assault weapons. The ban, the first of its kind in the nation, was passed in 1989.
Gun Tracing
TNT Peer Educators convinced the Oakland City Council to require the Police Department to trace guns confiscated from youth. Gun tracing, which is mandated for local law enforcement, is an inexpensive tool to determine where these illegal weapons are originating and who is profiting. Youth ALIVE! also conducted its own primary research on gun tracing in cities and counties in Northern California. Survey results led to the formation of a California Gun Tracing Task Force. The Task Force recommended multiple changes in order to facilitate the tracing process, many of which are currently being implemented. Read it below.
More on gun tracing:
- The Supply and Demand for Juvenile Guns in Oakland: Results of Oakland Gun Tracing Study
- The Supply and Demand for Guns to Juveniles: Oakland's Gun Tracing Project Journal of Urban Health, December, 2005
- The Oakland Gun Tracing Project Quick Facts
- Crime Gun Tracing — Definition, Problems & Recommendations
Gun Dealers
Former President Bill Clinton congratulates Youth ALIVE! staff member Sherman Spears after his presentation.
TNT Peer Educators testified at Oakland City Council meetings, made a video, generated widespread media coverage, and succeeded in getting neighborhood gun dealers banned from the city. Previously there were 115 dealers in Oakland; now there is one.
Gun Advertising
Peer Educators campaigned successfully to stop the Oakland Tribune from running advertisements of handguns and assault rifles.
Safe Schools
TNT Peer Educators worked with TNT staff, the Family Violence Law Center and the Oakland Unified School District to develop and implement school-based protocols to address the problem of dating violence at each school site and throughout the district.