Step 1: Understanding Your Audience

Mayors and city council members are local elected officials who lead the administration of city services, public safety and community welfare, among many other responsibilities. Mayors serve as the chief executive of their city, similar to how a governor oversees their state. The city council is the local legislative body, like a state’s legislature. Mayors often set the overall agenda and priorities for the city, while city council members draft and pass policies through city ordinances and budgets. In some communities, the head of local government is called a president (rather than mayor) and the local government body is called a board. Some cities also have a city manager who can hold similar authority to a mayor.

Mayors and city council members can play an important role in the fight to improve school and gun safety. For example, these local leaders can allocate resources to public safety programs, direct local law enforcement and advocate for community-based safety initiatives. They can also form partnerships with school districts and community organizations to develop new initiatives to address the community’s school and gun safety concerns. Mayors are also typically the commander in chief of a city's police department.

Collaborating with your city government is a critical part of strategically advocating for school safety. Because your mayor and city council members live close to you, they are highly invested in local issues and have a more direct impact on your community than state or federal elected officials. That said, mayors and city council members may not be the best first contact in this advocacy work since they are typically not as close to the day-to-day experiences of schools. Consider first working with the leaders in your school community, such as principals, teachers and school board members, then turning to mayors and city council members to expand the impact of your advocacy work.

When you are ready to meet with your local elected leaders, consider bringing in other parents, community members and organizations to present a unified message. Focus on specific, actionable recommendations. Make sure to also research the positions and past political decisions of your mayor and members of your city council or board, especially regarding public and gun safety, before your meeting. You can also attend city council meetings to familiarize yourself with their priorities and consider speaking during the public comment period of council meetings to introduce your concerns or suggestions. By presenting community support and well-researched proposals, you can more effectively advocate for policies that improve school and gun safety in your community.

Step 2: Preparing for Your Conversation

We recommend inviting others in your local community to join the meeting, such as other concerned parents/guardians, students or teachers. A more inclusive group will not only emphasize the importance of school and gun safety across the community but also show your mayor or council members that your community is willing to work together on these issues. Before scheduling a meeting, meet with this group of interested people to plan what you will talk about.

Building a long-term relationship with these local leaders in your community and their offices is essential, as advocacy is rarely effective in a single meeting. Focus on relating to your elected officials by sharing your personal story and how gun violence impacts your family and school community.

Prepare and send an agenda to the participants, especially your mayor or city council members, prior to the meeting. Make sure to review PTA's official positions on this topic for language you can use in your conversations. Ideally, the agenda should include topics for discussion and questions you have related to school and gun safety. An agenda template is provided in another tab of this blueprint that you can tailor to meet the needs and objectives of you and your community.

Step 3: Discussion and Further Action

Remember, this conversation is an opportunity to provide feedback, ask questions and build a relationship with your local leaders around school and gun safety. Take notes, ask questions, listen closely and commit to continued conversation, collaboration and action alongside your mayor and their staff and your city council members.

There are many ways you can collaborate with your mayor or city council members beyond an initial conversation on school safety. Consider suggesting these relatively simple next steps:

• Schedule another meeting, perhaps bringing in more families from the community or other important voices like teachers or students.

• Invite your mayor and city council members to speak at a PTA meeting to share existing school safety measures, discuss gun violence reduction strategies and elicit feedback from families on this issue.

• Ask your mayor and city council members to prioritize school and gun safety in an upcoming meeting, in their strategic plans and in their regular communications with the community. If possible, offer to help gather resources to share in those communications, particularly around gun safety.

Or consider these more complex, next steps:

• Urge your city council to pass a local ordinance that adopts meaningful gun safety, school safety and violence prevention measures.

• Write a letter to the editor of your local paper or speak at an upcoming city council meeting advocating for specific school and gun safety measures.

• Encourage your mayor and city council to establish a gun violence prevention task force or host a community survey to gather feedback from community members.

• Work with your city council to help secure more local, state and federal funding to address school safety needs and participate in the annual district budget process.

• Write a letter about your perspective and concerns around school safety and share the letter with your city council. Ideally, ask other parents in your community to sign the letter or write the letter on behalf of your PTA if you are in a leadership role.

Remember to send a follow-up email thanking your mayor or city council members and their staff for their time and reiterating any next steps that were discussed in the meeting. We also highly recommend you take a photo during your meeting and post to social media, tagging your mayor and city council members and National PTA so the conversation can continue after the meeting.

Sample Meeting Agenda

Below are some sample questions you might consider discussing during a meeting with your school principal. Feel free to customize these questions to meet your community’s needs.

• Introductions. Briefly describe who is in attendance, their role and their relationship to the school or the community. Explain how those in your group relate to your mayor or city council members. 

• Personal Story. Have one or two people in your group explain why the issue of school safety is important to them and/or share a brief (1-2 minute) story about their experience with this issue. Personal stories not only increase credibility but are often the most memorable and compelling for mayors and city council members and will underscore the importance of your requests later in the meeting. They will not remember every statistic you share, but they will always remember how you made them feel. 

• Acknowledgements. Take a moment to thank your mayor or city council member for anything they have done so far to improve school and gun safety, like supporting a policy or resolution, or speaking out on the issue. This is also a good opportunity to identify and confirm whether they are on any work groups addressing these issues.  

• Secure Storage. Do you support policies to encourage gun owners to store their firearms safely and out of reach of children? Do you support holding adults accountable for using safety locks and other safety devices to prevent youth from obtaining and discharging a firearm? How do you work with local law enforcement to ensure firearms don’t end up in the wrong hands?

• Background Checks. Are you in favor of universal background checks for anyone who purchases a firearm? Are you in favor of background checks for guns purchased via gun shows, online transactions and other unlicensed sales? Are you in favor of prohibiting sales until a background check is complete instead of allowing sales to go forward after three days even if the background check is not finished? Do you support permits to purchase firearms that enable guns to be traced more easily if they are found at the scene of a crime?  

• Minimum Age Requirement. Are you in favor of the legislature setting the minimum age to purchase firearms at 21 years old rather than 18? [Note that some states may already have this minimum.] Would you support a policy that revokes a firearm license for any dealer who knowingly sells to minors? Do you support increasing the enforcement of state minimum age requirements for handgun purchases?

• Firearm Safety Education. Would you support education programs to teach students, parents and community members about firearm safety, secure storage and violence prevention?  

• Mental Health & Research. Would you like to see the legislature increase school funding to provide wrap-around services for students who are at risk of harming themselves or others? For students who have brought a firearm to school? 

• Restricting Specific Weapons and Accessories. Do you support a ban on bump stocks, auto sears and other machine gun conversion devices? Military-style semi-automatic assault weapons? Large-capacity ammunition magazines? Online sales of kits that can be used to make or modify guns? Are you willing to support the tightening of enforcement on straw purchases of weapons and limit how many guns can be purchased in a month?

• Red Flag ("Extreme Risk") and Firearm Prohibition Laws. Do you support creating a process to temporarily prevent a person in crisis from accessing guns? Do you support restricting gun purchases for adults who commit violent crimes, such as domestic abuse? How about if they committed a violent crime as a juvenile?

• School Climate and Student Support Services. What role do you see school climate and student discipline playing in school safety? Do you support restorative justice, positive school discipline, and alternative dispute resolution techniques over the detention, exclusion or incarceration of youth? 

• Physical Safety. Do you support increasing the physical security of school buildings? How do you aim to do this without undermining the school environment or causing psychological harm through ineffective trainings, lockdowns or responses to false threats of violence? What measures specifically do you support to protect schools from firearm-related and other forms of violence?

• State Funding. Do you support state efforts to increase funding to incentivize and support family engagement and education initiatives? Where do you stand on funding comprehensive school mental health programs, drug and violence prevention programs, training on trauma-informed practices, and other health and physical education programs?

• Thank You & Next Steps. 

Checklist for Working with Mayors and City Council Members on School Safety

• Identify your mayor and city council members and their staff.

• Review the publicly available school safety information (see Step 1).

• Schedule a meeting with your mayor, council members or their staff (see Step 2).

• Draft and send an agenda in advance of the meeting (see Step 2).

• Assemble a list of school safety related questions, concerns and requests (see Step 2). If helpful, use the resources listed below.

• Meet with your mayor, council members or their staff (see Step 3 and PTA’s helpful tool).

• Commit to next steps with your mayor or council members (see Step 3).