In the United States over 40,000 people die from gun violence each year. In our most recent campaign, we compared gun violence deaths to soldiers lost in war. Our intent was not to disregard the tragedy and pain that comes with wartime casualties. But it is an important comparison to make when we consider that many citizens experience gun violence during their day-to-day life.

Since Joaquin was killed in the Parkland shooting 5 years ago, we’ve lost over 200,000 lives to gun violence. That’s almost half the amount of soldiers the US lost in WWII. In 5 more years, we’ll have lost over 400,000 lives to gun violence, around the number of soldiers we lost in WWII.