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In 1997, its first year of operation, children’s clothing distributor Bonnie and Children’s Sportswear Inc. sold 1.2 million items of pint-sized camouflage gear and accessories. Owner Bonnie Cason expects to double that success this year, in part due to the olive green embroidered jumper pictured here. “It’s real big,” Cason says, “because girls love it as much as boys.” Comparing this outfit to the efforts by the gun and hunting industries to “familiarize” children with weapons—notably, the National Rifle Association’s Eddie Eagle cartoon character cum safety spokesbird—Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center sees a trend to “reach out to smaller and smaller children.” Cason estimates that she’s sold about 50,000 of the “Daddy’s Little Deer” design.

Estimated number of firearms in the possession of U.S. citizens: 192 million One out of every three handguns is stored in the home loaded and unlocked For every child killed by a gun, three are wounded The firearm death rate of American children (up to 14 years old) is nearly 12 times higher than that of the other 25 industrialized nations combined Reduction in accidental firearm deaths of kids after a state passes a “safe storage” law making gun owners responsible for storing firearms safely: 23 percent Number of states that have such safe storage laws: 15 Rank of firearms as the cause of accidental death among children 5 to 14 years old: 4

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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