DO GOODER

Teen Tackles Gun Violence By Creating Clothing Company ToSpread Love.

RuQuanBrown of Washington, D.C., knows firsthand how devastating gun violence is.At18, he’s already lost too many loved ones. That’s why he’s fighting thenationwide issue with a powerful force: love.

Not only is he a trackand football star, but he’s been accepted into 24 colleges, seven of which areIvy League institutions. Plus, he’s earned 16 scholarships! But he’d trade allof it to bring two special people back. Between September 2017 and October2018, both RuQuan’s teammate and stepfather were shot and killed.

ForRuQuan, enough was enough.

“I wanted to beat gun violence to thepunch so that our families don’t have to continuously fall victim to tragiclosses,” RuQuan told Because of Them We Can.So he started the clothing company Love1, whose goal is to encouragecommunities to put love first.

RuQuanand his mom, who helps him run the company, sell shirts, hoodies, wristbands,and other accessories. They also donate 20 percent of their profits to One GunGone, a New Jersey-based organization dedicated to keeping guns off of thestreets.

One Gun Gone‘s goal is “to take one gun off thestreet, make artwork from it and then sell that artwork to raise money to buymore guns off the streets with a police sanctioned gun buyback.”

“We’reeliminating a small fragment of the problem in order to reduce the amount ofour loved ones being taken from us,” RuQuan added.

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