Ahead of National Gun Violence Survivors Week, Feb. 1-7, PEOPLE and Everytown for Gun Safety partnered for a virtual roundtable discussion.
Nearly 40,000 Americans are killed by guns every year and approximately 85,000 more are shot and wounded, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But the impact of gun violence is even more wide-reaching.
“[Gun violence] is destroying families. It needs to change,” says Stedman Bailey, a former NFL player whose career was cut short after he was shot twice in the head in 2015. “If we’re not using our platform and sharing our stories, we’re doing a disservice to the millions of other people who are going through the same thing that don’t have a platform, they don’t have a voice.”
Read the full People magazine article by Elaine Aradillas: HERE
Watch the roundtable discussion with Devereaux Peters, Stedman Bailey, Dionte Spencer, and DeAndre’ Bembry HERE.