Stick Talk is a Chicago-based gun safety advocacy organization rooted in the left-of-center principles of harm reduction. The organization advocates for gun safety and education. In the context of gun violence, Stick Talk accepts that guns will be used and attempts to reduce the harm associated with gun use, rather than seeking to prohibit gun ownership. ^{1 2}

Stick Talk supports police and prison abolition and believes that exposing young racial minorities to the police is excessively dangerous. ^{1 3}

Background

Stick Talk is a left-of-center gun safety advocacy organization. Instead of attempting to reduce gun violence by opposing gun ownership, Stick Talk teaches people in urban environments and in prison how guns are used and how to use them safely in an effort to reduce urban gun violence. Stick Talk is rooted in the harm-reduction philosophy seen most often in approaches to drug addiction. In the context of drug addiction, harm-reduction focuses on reducing the harms of drug use instead of advocating for abstinence from drug use entirely. In the context of gun violence, Stick Talk accepts that guns will be used and attempts to reduce the harm associated with gun use. ^{1 2}

Stick Talk aims to respond to racial minority communities that face gun violence “with the same empathy that is usually reserved for white people who use opioids.” It argues that “carrying a gun for protection is a reasonable response to the system’s refusal to keep us safe.” Stick Talk claims that the “premature deaths of young Black and Brown people” are linked to their exposure to the police. ³

Activities

Stick Talk promotes its approach to gun safety through neighborhood-level networks that host conversations, skill acquisition, and mutual support. The organization calls itself a “Black collective” made up of practitioners of the left-of-center philosophy of restorative justice. Stick Talk claims to be in the lineage of those who advocate for prison and police abolition. ¹

Subjects covered in Stick Talk skills meetings include how to apply first aid to gunshot wounds; how to avoid accidental discharges; how to carry, clean, and store firearms; and how to comport oneself during a police stop. Stick Talk also hosts non-gun related conversations on subjects like bank accounts and job applications. Stick Talk does not teach participants in its programming how to shoot weapons. Stick Talk “hubs,” where meetings and other activities take place, are deliberately located to help participants not have to cross over gang territory lines. ²

Stick Talk also supports 15 Chicago-based activists through its Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC) Practitioners Lab. Each participant received $1,200 and met for three months from June to September 2024 to strategize on how to avoid the pitfalls of what it calls the “Non-Profit Industrial Complex,” which it claims restricts the imaginations of social justice organizations and “redirect[s] activist energies into career-based modes of organizing instead of mass-based organizing capable of actually transforming society.” The cohort was created to explore how the NPIC has “waylaid” the “revolutionary potential” of social movements, how they can resist professionalization of their work, and how the NPIC forces competition among groups. Participants were required to wear a mask provided by the organization to all meetings. ⁴

Leadership

The co-directors of Stick Talk are Brandon Daurham and Ethan Ucker. ²

Daurham is a self-employed financial and family advocate. ⁵

Ethan Ucker is also the co-founder of Circles and Ciphers, a “hip-hop infused restorative justice organization” in Chicago. ⁶

Partnerships

Stick Talk partners with the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice to conduct workshops at the Department’s Chicago detention center. ²

Other partners listed on Stick Talk’s website include the Albert Pick, Jr., Fund; the Annie E. Casey Foundation; the Black Survival Network; the Chicago Community Bond Fund; the Community Justice for Youth Institute; Cook County Juvenile Probation; the Cook County Public Defender’s Office; the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice; the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago; the Institute on Public Safety and Social Justice; March for Our Lives; the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice; Pride ROC; and The Restorative Project. ⁷

1. “Who We Are.” Stick Talk. Accessed March 31, 2025. https://www.sticktalk.org/about
2. Dewan, Shaila. “To Make Guns Less Dangerous, One Group Teaches Young People How to Use Them.” The New York Times. March 17, 2025. Accessed March 31, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/gun-violence-deaths-harm-reduction.html.
3. “Stick Talk.” Stick Talk. Accessed March 31, 2025. https://www.sticktalk.org/.
4. “NPIC Practitioners Lab.” Stick Talk. Accessed March 31, 2025. https://www.sticktalk.org/npic.
5. “Brandon Daurham.” LinkedIn. Accessed March 31, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-daurham-3168391b5/.
6. “Ethan Ucker (He/Him).” LinkedIn. Accessed March 31, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-ucker/.
7. “Partners – Stick Talk.” Stick Talk – do we dare love the shooters? Accessed April 9, 2025. https://www.sticktalk.org/partners.