Initiatives To End Gun Violence
Information, Activities, and Resources

Bell Ringing Memorial Ceremony

From California to Maine, and Texas to Minnesota, members of the Million Mom March and other gun control activists across the country have joined together in a nationwide memorial event to remember victims of gun violence and sound the alarm that enough is enough! And that gun violence in our communities must end!

At a set time bells of all sorts tolled 82 times in towns, cities, schools, churches, neighborhoods and homes across the nation to commemorate the number of people killed everyday in this country by gun violence. This event is a powerful statement that rings through communities everywhere tolling the work still needed to end senseless gun violence. 

Planning a Bell Ringing Event

How Do You Get Started?

Put together a working group of individuals to help with the planning and implementation of this project. Organize committees to take responsibility for accomplishing a few priority tasks. Here is a suggested committee structure with some specific duties outlined:

• Sponsorship committee (fundraising) - This committee would work to create resource rich partnerships with local entities for activities like promotions, printing, giveaways etc.
• Bell ringing committee- This committee would be responsible for working with local entities (i.e., churches, fire departments, schools, City Hall etc.) to encourage them to participate on the designated bell-ringing day by ringing their bell at the designated time.
• Press committee- One of the most important components of this activity is that it has the potential to bring local press out to learn more about the issue. The press committee is responsible for the development and implementation of pre-event, during event and post event press strategy. That includes getting the press to the event and making sure that every member of the press corps has all of the information they need to make the story informative and interesting enough to print or broadcast.
• Program committee Each bell rining event should include a short program that explains why the bells are ringing and what you hope to accomplish by implementing this project. The program committee should be responsible for developing, organizing and directing the program portion of the project.

Who should participate?

Religious organizations, victims’ groups, and civil and human rights activists, service organizations, childrens advocacy groups; anyone who wants to help and may be interested in protecting the rights of victims of gun violence of all ages. These groups may also have access to or be aware of bells that can be rung, at churches, schools, in memorial gardens, at municipal offices, at the district offices of members of Congress, etc.