We, the students standing against gun violence in Arizona, come together to address that this gun violence is destructive, intersectional, and preventable. In coming together to address how gun violence pervades our schools, homes and communities, we deem that institutions, leaders and policy makers across the country have an imperative to adopt comprehensive measures to prevent this unnecessary violence. Someone is shot every nine hours in our state, and this must end. We demand our lawmakers,

1. Require universal background checks before all gun purchases; eliminate loopholes by connecting local, state, and federal databases of prohibited purchasers; require a minimum mandatory waiting period of 10 days to purchase a firearm.
2. Decrease the legal magazine size, banning bump stocks, and other accessories that lead to increased lethality of shootings
3. Establish a tax on firearm sales, equipment, and ammunition to be allocated to mental health support
4. Require gun safety training and the promotion of safe practices to reduce the 30% of child related gun deaths using an unsecured weapon; Require firearm storage in which guns are unloaded and separated from ammunition
5. Emphasize de-escalation and nonlethal force in police training, increase police accountability to reduce the record number of police involved shootings in Phoenix, and conduct civilian/officer dialogue
6. Prohibit past or present domestic abusers from possessing firearms to protect partners and children in addition to increasing support for those in abusive relationships
7. Ensure people who pose a heightened risk to community safety, such as domestic abusers, don’t have access to guns by allowing extreme risk protection orders where family members, law enforcement, mental health professionals, educators, intimate partners and former intimate partners can petition the court to disarm the abuser.
8. Allocate sufficient funding for mental health programs including, but not limited to, school-based safety and security initiatives; violence intervention programs; healthcare services, including counseling and mental health evaluations, to be provided by a trained racially and culturally diverse team of mental health professionals; and decrease the counselor to student ratio to 1:250.
9. Provide professional development around mental health awareness and interventions for students, parents and faculty.
10. Reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and illness by educating students and faculty on mental health; establishing support networks such as peer counseling; creating pathways for identification and intervention of at-risk youth based on mental health and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) evaluations.
11. Establish a school safety committee whose meetings are open to the public at every school equally composed of students, parents and faculty who are tasked with school security measures.
12. Ensure SROs and school officers are trained in de-escalation, mental health, and counseling.