For April & May, This Newsletter is a Fundraiser for Gun Control

Inspired by Tennessee, all new annual subscriptions will go towards Quarterlife-led initiatives for change

Like you, I have gone through all the emotions around the constant mass shootings in America many times over. Whether it was a school shooting while I was still in high school nearly twenty-five years ago or one yesterday, I’m sure I can recall hundreds of mass shootings with some detail. Unbelievably, they’ve taken over every corner of our society, from elementary schools to grocery stores, concerts, dance clubs, high schools, theaters, middle schools, parades, colleges, massage parlors, and malls. More than a few times, I’ve texted friends and family who I fear are in harm’s way, and I’ve texted back after similar inquiries when a mass shooting is happening near me. I have cried about these heinous mass murders, written about them in my book and in many newsletters, and raged about them, but I have also, admittedly, over time, fallen into frozen complacency.

It feels impossible—is impossible—to react to each shooting with the appropriate emotion if we are to get anything done in life. Already in 2023, there have been an average of 1.5 mass shootings a day, and that’s just the mass shootings. Entirely preventable accidents, suicides, and homicides involving a gun don’t make that list.

But recently, the extraordinary, unified activism taking place in Tennessee is melting my relative complacency. I feel hope again! I am excited, moved, and proud, and I want to do whatever I can to help this activism spread nationwide.

This is a movement led by Quarterlifers, including two exemplary Quarterlife representatives in the state legislature, Justin Jones (27) and Justin Pearson (29), who were expelled for joining with their peers in protest on the House floor and in the public gallery, and two Vanderbilt students, Ezri Tyler and Brynn Jones, who organized two straight weeks of protests. (Thanks to a unanimous vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council yesterday, Rep. Justin Jones was just sworn back in!)

In video after video, story after story, the leadership we’re seeing catch fire in Tennesee is inspiring, and it’s building on the incredible national leadership of so many victims of mass shootings, students, and parents who have been pushing for common-sense gun legislation for years, including Quarterlifers like March for Our Lives co-founder, David Hogg (22), and the first organizing director of March for Our Lives, Maxwell Frost (26), who now, blessedly, serves as the first Gen-Z member of Congress.

In support of this movement, I am happy to say that for the rest of April & May (at least), this substack will be a fundraiser for gun violence prevention.

All proceeds from new annual subscriptions will be donated to March for Our Lives. (Founding members will also receive a signed copy of Quarterlife—just tell me where to send it!) And if you are already an annual subscriber and want your money donated too, just reply to this email! I’m happy to add it to the pot.

My intention is for this newsletter to be of service. I want it to be of value to your lives. Let me know what you’d like me to write about! Whether it be your personal quandaries or more on the search for meaning and stability, I’d like this substack to grow to become a resource and community for Quarterlifers, wherever you live. I’m just getting started.

Please share this with others in your life. The more new subscribers in the coming weeks, the more money raised for gun violence prevention.