Massachusetts Btn
OhioBtn
homebtn

For staff bios and board of directors, click on names below:


Nancy Robinson

Executive Director,
Citizens for Safety Massachusetts


Board of Directors


About Us

Citizens for Safety is a coalition of faith and civic leaders, elected officials, law enforcement professionals, and ordinary citizens working to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and youth without abridging the freedoms of law-abiding Americans.

Citizens for Safety supports the following goals:

  • Criminal background checks for ALL gun sales
  • Increased training and accountability for gun dealers
  • Programs to deter straw purchasing
(i.e. a person with a clean record purchases a gun for someone who cannot legally own a gun)

Our History

In 2006, Lori O’Neill and Nancy Robinson founded Massachusetts Against Trafficking Handguns (MATH), the first statewide coalition focused exclusively on strategies to
keep guns out of the hands of criminals and youth. The MATH Coalition grew to over 500 members in its first year, and in January 2008, merged with founding members of Citizens for Safety, a Boston-based community group instrumental in producing a 70% drop in gun crime in the 1990s known as the “Boston Miracle.” The original Citizens
for Safety pioneered gun buyback programs; the new Citizens for Safety is focused on cutting off the flow of illegal guns before they make it to the streets.

Citizens for Safety has designed a community action campaign to make it easy
for people to understand the connection between gun violence in their communities
and gun trafficking that makes it possible. The “Where did the gun come from?”
public awareness campaign expands public and media focus beyond the individual shooter to the people who put a gun in his hands. Our Traffick Jam™ Community Workshops educate ordinary citizens about the common sources of guns used in
crime and bring people together to work toward solutions to keep guns out of the
hands of criminals and youth.

Citizens for Safety’s list of supporters includes Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Senators John Kerry
and Sherrod Brown, the International Association of Chiefs of Police Firearms Committee, and hundreds of other prominent civic and religious leaders working
for safer communities.