Authors Council

Everytown for Gun Safety—the largest gun violence prevention non-profit in the country with more than three million supporters—has joined with a consortium of acclaimed authors to launch the Everytown Authors Council.

The group is open to authors, illustrators and editors; agents; and others deeply connected in the literary community. It is designed to harness the power of the literary community to amplify the gun safety movement. The group uses its collective reach and cultural influence to support commonsense solutions proven to save lives from the gun violence that claims 100 American lives every day and injures hundreds more.

We’re issuing a call to action, standing on these core values and principles:

We believe there are many common sense steps we can – and must – take right now to help save American lives from gun violence.

• We believe we have a responsibility to help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people – including convicted criminals, domestic abusers, stalkers, and people with dangerous mental illness.
• We believe in gun safety – that we have a responsibility to store guns safely, unloaded and out of the reach of children.
• We believe everyone has a role to play in reducing gun violence and that every action, no matter how small, helps bring us closer to a future free from gun violence.
• We believe the creative community has an opportunity to use our communication skills and the power of culture to galvanize many more Americans in the gun violence prevention movement.

Progress may not come as fast as we would like, but we know that we will continue to achieve victories in cities, states and on the national level when more and more Americans stand up and support common-sense solutions.

We stand united and will work to reach more people, recruit more supporters and achieve more victories. By signing our names to this statement, we commit to use our creativity and visibility in the months ahead to help drive real change. While these are just the first steps, we pledge to use our voices wherever and whenever we can, doing our part to help mobilize more Americans to help save lives from gun violence.