Ad Council and Healthcare Leaders Launch Agree To Agree Campaign to Combat Youth Gun Violence

With June marking national Gun Violence Awareness Month, a major public health push is underway to address the leading cause of death among American children and teenagers. The Ad Council, in collaboration with the American Medical Association and a broad coalition of healthcare executives, has launched a national campaign titled Agree To Agree. The initiative aims to move past deeply polarized political debates by establishing nonpartisan common ground focused entirely on keeping youth safe from gunfire.

According to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and highlighted by the campaign, firearm injuries officially became the leading cause of death for United States children and adolescents between the ages of 1 and 17 in 2020. This tragic trend has persisted, encompassing the full spectrum of gun violence including intentional shootings, accidental backyard discharges, and youth suicides.

The national face of the campaign is Dr. Joseph Sakran, a prominent trauma surgeon and the executive vice chair of surgery at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Sakran brings a deeply personal perspective to the public health crisis. When he was 17 years old, he was struck in the neck by a stray bullet after attending a high school football game. Surviving the near-fatal incident inspired his career in medicine and ignited his lifetime commitment to gun violence prevention.

Sakran emphasizes that as a surgeon, he witnesses the devastating impact of unsecured firearms on a regular basis, from the operating room to the heartbreaking conversations he must have with families informing them that their child is never coming home. He maintains that prevention is the most effective medical treatment for a gunshot wound, arguing that the political noise surrounding gun ownership frequently obscures a wide and real foundation of shared beliefs among everyday Americans.

Central to the campaign is a supermajority consensus regarding firearm safety. Research conducted by the Ad Council found that 80 percent of Americans living in households with gun owners agree that practicing safe, secure gun storage directly reduces the incidence of gun violence. Furthermore, broader data reveals that eight out of ten Americans believe having productive, nonjudgmental conversations about firearm safety can successfully lower youth injury and mortality rates.

To capitalize on this common ground, the campaign has launched a digital resource hub at agreetoagree.org. The platform provides evidence-based toolkits, shareable graphics, and detailed conversation guides designed for both parents and medical professionals. The resources offer practical advice on how caregivers can comfortably ask other parents about the presence of unlocked firearms before sending a child to a playdate, how to spot warning signs of a youth in crisis, and how clinicians can integrate compassionate gun safety assessments into routine medical appointments.

Organizers stress that the framework does not challenge the legality or philosophy of gun ownership, but rather normalizes safety protocols in the same manner society successfully addressed historical public health crises like youth smoking and seatbelt compliance. By establishing an open-ended dialogue rooted in the shared goal of child preservation, the initiative seeks to empower local communities across the country to take immediate, individual steps to eliminate firearm accidents and save lives.

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