Washington University will soon kick off a year of events focused on using the University’s resources for the advancement of gun legislation and gun violence prevention and awareness, according to Risa Zwerling Wrighton, wife of the chancellor and academic advisor in the College of Arts & Sciences.

After just two meetings, a team of University deans and community leaders have set to work planning and designing a year’s worth of speakers, panels and other community outreach events aiming to educate the students and larger community on the dangers of gun violence and the ways that individuals can make an impact on the issue.

James Harrang | Student Life Archives

Risa Zwerling Wrighton, the chancellor’s wife and an academic advisor, is pushing for increased awareness of gun violence. Zwerling and a team of deans and other campus leaders is planning a year-long series of events on the topic starting with a panel on April 21.

The initiative was inspired by Zwerling in response to the death of a local St. Louis teen she mentored from the girl’s 4th through 11th grades. Chelsea Harris, 16, was shot on Dec. 15, 2014 on Dewey Avenue in St. Louis. She and her boyfriend were shot multiple times, and suspect Jeron Frairson was later charged with murder, assault and two counts of armed criminal action.

After experiencing the impacts of gun violence firsthand, Zwerling felt strongly about the issue and recognized that it was necessary to address it.

“You have to be lucky to avoid these bullets, and I think that lucky part of our society is getting smaller and smaller. We can’t live on luck—so now I’m just crazy about gun violence prevention,” she said.

The first planned event is set for April 21, Zwerling said, and will include keynote speaker Alan Leshner, CEO and executive publisher of the journal Science. Leshner proposed in a 2013 report with the Institute of Medicine and National Research that it be made a priority to improve the awareness and understanding of the public health issues related to gun violence.

A panel discussion will also take place following Leshner’s presentation. Panelists in addition to Leshner will include emergency room physician Bo Kennedy, who often treats trauma and gunshot wound victims; James Clark, vice president of Better Family Life Inc.; Moms Demand Action’s Becky Morgan; and Nancy Staudt, dean of the School of Law.

The planning team also hopes to host a fall kickoff event that will coincide with the opening of the new Brown School of Social Work, and Zwerling said they have some exciting plans for the event, such as including a high-profile speaker like former U.S. Representative Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords, who following a critical gunshot injury to the head has turned to gun restriction advocacy.

“We’re thinking in October [we] could get some real high-profile speaker like Gabby Giffords or Joe Biden, Rahm Emanuel, someone to open up the policy forum, which is going to be the big circular part of that building,” Zwerling said.

Although Zwerling said that April’s speaker and following panel have been scheduled, some of the group’s members differ in their goals for the yearlong initiative.

“We’re responding to a call for additional research, additional insight, better collection of data and access to data,” Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Jill Friedman said. “We are not entering into this process with the intention of moving forward any legislative agenda or specific changes in policy.”

Friedman also stressed that the goals are less political and more analytical, playing into the strengths of the University as a whole.

Zwerling, however, told Student Life that she intended for a political aspect to the initiative.

“Our goals include getting legislation passed, but that is just one prong of a multi-pronged approach,” she noted.

Although the University chose not to take a stand on several of student demands earlier this semester in an effort to remain apolitical, Zwerling said the chancellor has been on board with this initiative’s agenda.

“When I told him that I had kind of reached out, I told him this might get a little political, and he tries to be apolitical, but he’s willing to go way out. He doesn’t care. He’s willing to go pretty far out on a limb—what are they going to do, fire us?” she said.

She also noted that the University’s abundance of resources would be an important asset in making a difference for the St. Louis and broader community.

“Look at all the resources I have. If I’m going to be privileged, if I’m going to live in this ivory tower, I’m going to use this ivory tower,” she said.

Zwerling said that the past few months have been an eye-opening time for the University.

“It’s the most violent thing that’s ever happened to me…the chancellor and I always sort of feel bad when we hear about everyone here being in this ‘bubble.’ And we know that it’s a very, very privileged bubble, but every once in a while it really drives home just how privileged a bubble it is,” Zwerling said.

“It’s been a whole semester—we’ve been here 20 years, but in the last six months I’ve had to face more of our shortfalls,” she added. “It’s really interesting because the last few months we’ve been really working hard to connect with students on campus who’ve been feeling disenfranchised with feelings of racism on campus.”

The school’s location in a conservative state poses some difficulty to gun violence prevention, however. Last year, bill HB 1439, the Missouri House of Representative’s version of the Second Amendment Preservation Act, passed by a vote of 110-41. The bill offers residents legal resistance to federal agents enforcing gun laws, allows for permit holders to openly carry firearms, lowers the minimum age to obtain such permits from 21 to 19 and gives school districts the power to designate armed protection officers.

Dean Nancy Staudt, who has a J.D. and Ph.D. in public policy and will be on April’s panel, noted the importance of understanding the public health aspects of the Second Amendment. She said she sees the goal of the initiative to bring people together to understand what they can do in collaboration with the community to increase safety overall.

“As a lawyer and public policy analyst, what I care most about is how…we balance citizens’ constitutional rights under the Second Amendment versus important public policy considerations—for example, those associated with public health—and, more generally, how do get to the point where we don’t suffer from unnecessary violence,” Staudt said.

She believes the U.S. legal system needs to look more closely at the Second Amendment from a public health standpoint.

“There’s so many risks associated with firearms and ammunition, and I think we have to be aware of that. Even the U.S. Supreme Court has commented that the Second Amendment is a very important piece of our constitutional framework, but it also needs to accommodate important public policy considerations, such as the risks associated with firearms,” Staudt said.

Staudt noted that the polarizing nature of the issue will be effective in drawing attention to the cause.

“What I’ve discovered is there really is not a person out there, at least that I could find, that doesn’t have an opinion on guns, so I think people will be very intrigued and will try to figure out what should our call to action be,” Staudt said.

Chancellor Mark Wrighton did not respond to a request for comment.