In America, black people are three times more likely than white people to be killed by police when unarmed and not threatening. When questioned why they pulled the trigger, police often say, “I thought they had a gun,” when—in reality—the victims are often armed with nothing more than a candy bar. In partnership with Courageous Conversation Global Foundation, "Not a Gun" was created to highlight the systemic problem of violence against people of color and to spark change around this issue.

This petition is a call for unconscious bias training and additional de-escalation training for all police officers. Right now, officers spend 58 hours in firearms training, versus 8 hours in de-escalation training. In addition, there are no federally mandated hours for unconscious bias training at all. So, officers are sent out with knowledge on how to shoot, but they don't know how to de-escalate difficult situations. And with no awareness of their own personal biases, it's clear why they make so many fear-based mistakes.

The goal of the campaign is to get everyone home safe. We believe that starts with training our police officers better.