For Immediate Release
February 26, 2025
Contact: Kate McDuffie
National Association of School Nurses
kmcduffie@nasn.org
Congressman Hank Johnson & Senator Elizabeth Warren Win Lillian Wald Award
SILVER SPRING, MD — The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) has named Congressman Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., of Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as the winners of the Lillian Wald Legislator/Public Policy Award. Warren was unable to attend in person to receive her award.
The award recognizes a legislator or public policy official who has supported or uniquely contributed to NASN, school nursing, or school health services.
"We are pleased to award Congressman Johnson and Senator Warren the Lillian Wald Award for their work advocating for safer schools and communities," said NASN CEO Terri Hinkley, EdD, MBA, BScN, RN, CAE. "The leadership on the Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2023 by Congressman Johnson and Senator Warren is a testament to their commitment to protect our students, educators, and families."
Pictured: Congressman Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., of Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District, accepts the Lillian Wald Legislator/Public Policy Award from NASN President Kate King, DNP, M.S., RN, LSN.
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About NASN
The National Association of School Nurses is a non-profit specialty nursing organization, organized in 1968 and incorporated in 1977, representing school nurses exclusively. NASN has more than 19,000 members and 50 affiliates, including the District of Columbia and overseas school nurses. The mission of the NASN is to optimize student health and learning by advancing the practice of school nursing. To learn more about NASN, please visit www.nasn.org or call 866-627-6767.
About the Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2023 (H. R. 6596)
To end the epidemic of gun violence and build safer communities by strengthening Federal firearms laws and supporting gun violence research, intervention, and prevention initiatives.
The Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act would help address this deadly crisis. The bill would:
- Create a federal gun licensing system and require a federal or state-issued firearms license to purchase or own a gun and establish a grant program to help states set up their own systems.
- Require universal background checks, close legal loopholes that allow individuals to skirt background check requirements and require background check denials to be reported to law enforcement.
- Keep guns out of the wrong hands by banning individuals who present safety risks from buying guns, establishing Extreme Risk Protection Order systems, and cracking down on gun theft.
- Ensure guns are used and stored responsibly by raising the minimum age for all gun or ammunition purchases to 21, establishing a 7-day waiting period for the purchase of all guns, strengthening gun storage laws, and banning guns on all school campuses.
- Keep weapons of war off our streets by banning military-style assault weapons, lethal gun accessories, and untraceable and undetectable firearms.
- Crack down on gun trafficking by banning bulk gun purchases and establishing a new law to specifically ban gun trafficking.
- Improve oversight of gun dealers by strengthening ATF's authority to inspect gun shops, enhancing record-keeping requirements for gun dealers, and repealing harmful appropriations riders that limit law enforcement's ability to trace guns that are used in crimes and hold gun dealers accountable when they break the law.
- Hold the gun industry accountable by clarifying that gun manufacturers can be held liable for civil penalties for the harms their guns cause, authorizing the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to address safety defects in firearms and firearm accessories, and raising the excise tax on gun sales to 30% and ammunition sales to 50%.
- Invest in research and community-based gun violence prevention by providing $120 million in annual funding for federal research into gun violence and creating a new grant program to provide $120 million per year for gun violence intervention programs.
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