February 14, 2023

Dear P4GVP Community,

On this day five years ago, we all learned in horror about a mass shooting that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people died. In the weeks and months following, we then watched with hope and inspiration as students who lived through the tragedy and other young people across the nation formed an unprecedented movement to fight for policy changes to make us safer from gun violence, including March for Our Lives. They spoke out, marched, posted on social media, gave media interviews, met with elected officials, fundraised, and registered millions of young voters; all of this work has made gun violence prevention a key issue in local and national elections like never before!

Also in the weeks and months following this tragic event, psychiatrists from across the country began discussing how we and allied mental health professionals could uniquely contribute to solving our gun violence crisis. And exactly one year after the Parkland shooting, on February 14, 2019, Psychiatrists for Gun Violence Prevention (P4GVP) launched its website (www.psychgvp.org). 

In the four years since P4GVP was founded, the United States has experienced countless more gun-related tragedies and setbacks, from numerous mass shootings (including one today in Michigan), to increasing firearm-related homicides and suicides, to hate crimes, to police violence and killings of unarmed Black people, to the Supreme Court striking down a time-tested gun safety law in New York. However, we have also seen glimmers of hope, especially recently, with a steady expansion of state-level Extreme Risk Protection Order laws, and with Congress passing the first major piece of gun violence prevention legislation in decades, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

We at P4GVP would like to think that we've played some part - however small - in this early progress over the past four years. From providing an up-to-date clearinghouse of evidence-based information on our website, to educating our professional and personal networks, to co-sponsoring vigils and co-signing letters to local and national elected officials, we have strived to highlight the facts about the relationships between gun violence and mental illness/health, refuted the stigma-based myths, and pushed for evidence-based public health solutions. Like the old advocacy saying goes, "when in doubt, take credit," and we will take a moment to do so.

But we also need to recognize how far we still have to go in the US, to make our communities safe from the trauma and carnage of gun violence. On this 5th anniversary of the Parkland shooting and 4th anniversary of P4GVP's official "founding," we soberly and resolutely commit to continuing the fight for safety and health, in solidarity with hundreds of other gun violence prevention organizations across the country.

In Solidarity,

Members of the P4GVP Leadership Team:

Charles Lee

Imaan Alaidroos

Marc Manseau

Rebecca Capasso