Keeping Guns Out Of Unsafe Hands
2024 Safer Country Annual Celebration
Safer Country is proud to be celebrating its fifth year as a gun tragedy prevention nonprofit.
Please join us for a reception to do so on Wednesday, November 13, from 7 – 9 pm, at the home of Peter Appel in McLean, Virginia (address provided upon donation)
Featured Speakers
Yetide Badaki, New Safer Country Advisory Committee Honorary Chairperson, LA-based Actress. Producer, Activist
Hala Ayala, New Board Member, former Delegate and former Virginia Lt. Governor Democratic nominee
Andrew Goddard, New Board Member, The Virginia Center for Public Safety Legislative Director
Co-Sponsors Ronald Abramson, Peter Appel, Rep. Don Beyer, Loren Hershey, Ret. Army Col. Gordon Sumner, Boyd Walker
Co-Chairs Nevin Dolcefino, Laurie Solomon
Co-Hosts Mark Levine, former State Delegate, Saddam Salim, Virginia State Senator
Special Guests
Chris Falcon, Fairfax County Clerk of the Court
Ghazala Hashmi, Ph.D., Virginia State Senator, candidate for Lt. Governor
Jay Jones, former State Delegate, candidate for Attorney General
Dr. Babur Lateef, Prince William County School Board Chair, candidate for Lt. Governor
Mark Levine, former State Delegate
Saddam Salim, Virginia State Senator
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, candidate for Lt. Governor
Co-Sponsors, Co-Chairs, Co-Hosts, and Special Guests will be listed and thanked on our invitation and at the event. This list is in development.
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Special 2025 Legislative Action
Safer Country has initiated the first ever effort to change the state firearms brandishing law to add a critical penalty for persons convicted of the misdemeanor charge. The change would add a penalty that removes the right to carry a firearm for a minimum of ten years. Illegally brandishing a firearm is the definition of someone who is unsafe with a gun.
This Saturday Night Live (SNL) skit from December 9, 2023 is an example of illegally brandishing a firearm. This is a dangerously funny skit. What’s not humorous is that in a nation with more and more people using guns to express their anger towards others this skit won’t do anything to reduce that problem. Airing this was extremely poor judgment.
Read Safer Country Executive Director Paul Friedman’s 10/10/23 Op/Ed on Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s refusal to take federal funds to prevent mass shootings and suicides, including military suicides.
It was published in the Richmond Times Dispatch and republished in The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.
Learn about the Gun Violence & ERPO (Extreme Risk Protection Order) Study.
This study was commissioned by The Joyce Foundation.
URGENT: If you feel concerned about your mental health and are in need of special help, call 988, the SUICIDE & CRISIS LIFELINE.