A new series of stencil installations from Philly-regular WRDSMTH, created in partnership with TOMS Shoes, urges Americans to contact their representative in Congress to advocate for universal background checks on guns.

WRDSMTH, while based in Los Angeles, has Philly area roots and has been installing around the city pretty regularly since 2014, as I’ve documented for this blog over the years here, here, here, and here!

“We’ve all been affected by gun violence in some manner and the frequency of school shootings and mass shootings is beyond disheartening and sickening,” WRDSMTH responded over text. “Something needs to be done. Period. I like the fact that [TOMS’ Founder] Blake Mycoskie and TOMS are championing the #EndGunViolenceTogether campaign for the simple reason that ‘someone has to do something.’ I aim to gain exposure for the movement with my art and that’s why participating in the campaign is vital for me.”

WRDSMTH’s stencil photographed in this post can be found at 5th and Bainbridge streets in Queen Village!

TOMS is working with street artists and muralists around the country to promote their End Gun Violence campaign, so far including artists like Tyler Ramsey, Ruben Rojas, and Philly’s own Alloyius Mcilwaine, to name a few.

Together, the effort has inspired people to send over 686,000 postcards to Congress urging their representatives to pass universal background checks, because as TOMS says in their campaign, “more than 90% of Americans support universal background checks.” If you’d like, you can get a postcard to send to your representative on TOMS’ website.