How One Mother Is Working to Prevent Other Tragedies

“To me, this safe storage message means a lot if it helps another family not have to experience this grief,” Eunice Benavidez tells PEOPLE

Eunice Benavidez was 3 years old when she and her family of five left the Dominican Republic to pursue the American dream. They ended up in New York City, where her father, Alejandro Guerrero, worked as a taxi driver to make ends meet. But in 1992, at age 42, he was shot and killed during an armed robbery.

“It was hard for my mother to be a widow and have three young children,” Benavidez tells PEOPLE. “I was the youngest. And learning a new language when you’ve been here for less than two years — you’re basically all alone.”

Benavidez says her mother “worked hard to get us out of here and move to Michigan,” where the family suffered another tragedy years later. Benavidez’s older brother, Alejandro Jr., was just weeks away from his 15th birthday when his best friend accidentally fatally shot him with an unsecured pistol in 2001.

“My big brother went to stay overnight and never came home,” Benavidez says. That tragedy, she says, represented “a different kind of gun violence that we didn’t even know was dangerous.”

Benavidez is now a social worker and volunteer at Moms Demand Action, a grassroots group within the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, that works to prevent gun violence and advocate for safe gun storage.

She says she became a volunteer after learning about the Everytown Survivor Network and connecting with others affected by gun violence.

“It’s really important to create awareness that there are things that gun owners and non-gun owners can do to keep their kids safe by securing their firearms,” Benavidez said. “And also normalizing these conversations about gun safety and being able to ask other parents and caregivers, ‘Are there unsafe weapons in your home?’”

According to Everytown for Gun Safety, gun violence will be the leading cause of death among children in the U.S. in 2022. Earlier this year, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared gun violence an “urgent public health crisis.”

Related: US Surgeon General declares gun violence an ‘urgent public health crisis,’ citing alarming statistics

A mother of three herself, Benavidez says she thinks about how to keep her kids safe in school by sharing information about safe gun storage with the school district and parents.

“This is a responsibility that everyone has,” she tells PEOPLE. “It shouldn’t just be survivors, but any adult involved can share the message.”

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The first annual event will take place from August 26 to 30 SMART week — a moment when communities across the US come together to spread the message about the critical importance of safe gun storage.

“For me this is a safe [gun] “Storage message means a lot if it helps another family not have to experience this grief,” Benavidez said. “Because grief is lifelong, the trauma that you experience is lifelong.”

Visit BeSMARTforkids.org to learn more about safe firearm storage and the most effective ways to protect children from unsafe firearms.

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