Implement proven gun violence solutions from in-depth research
Gun violence is a public health crisis that impacts communities from coast to coast. Whether it be suicide, mass shootings, intimate partner violence or intra-communal gun violence, far too many families have been ripped apart by gun violence. And too many people can now say, they know someone who has died or been a victim of gun violence.
Everytown USA reported that 58% of respondents in a national poll reported that they or someone they cared for had been a victim of gun violence.
In Tennessee, the numbers are even more grim. Everytown USA reported that in an average year, 1,143 Tennesseans die by guns. Tennessee is not an anomaly. Gun violence is a problem everywhere.
In communities across the country, public officials stand at podiums and lament the latest victim of gun violence. It is not uncommon to hear police officials decry that a homicide was the worst they’d seen in years. In other instances, departmental spokespersons plead with the public for answers. But the answers are hiding in plain sight.
Investing in proven gun violence reduction strategies that are helmed by community-based groups is a key to keeping communities safe. Targeting resources to the small percentage of people driving gun violence is a research-based tactic that has been shown to address the challenge without criminalizing entire communities. Reaching and engaging children and youth before they’ve lost hope cannot be understated either.
In Tennessee, 59% of gun deaths are suicides and 36% are homicides. Increasing hope by making jobs, housing, mental and physical healthcare more accessible in all facets of our community will help everyone.
To progress, we must expand imagination
When it comes to responding to gun violence, public safety is broader than police. Police react to crime but they cannot always get to the root cause of crime in order to prevent it from happening in the first place. To prevent gun violence and keep communities safe, we must reach young people before they have reached the end of their proverbial rope.
Unfortunately, far too many Black and Brown youth grow up in a sea of despair. From watching loved ones succumb to gun violence, to lacking access to affordable mental and physical healthcare, to being in constant survival mode due to financial lack, many young people grow up with the odds stacked against them.
Gun violence cannot be removed from the pain that has punctuated the lives of so many. We cannot pretend that amid one of the worst pandemics in a generation there won’t be a lasting impact on people already struggling to keep their heads above water.
At 7.1%, the unemployment rate for Black people is 3 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate of 4%.
While unemployment overall is lower than it has been in years, the rate doesn’t count people who have given up on a system that demands more of their time and won’t offer a living wage in exchange for their talent and labor, so they stopped looking for work traditional employment altogether.
Whether you have been directly impacted by gun violence or not, none of us can afford to be unbothered by it. If policymakers don’t take immediate and intentional action, gun violence will affect more and more people.
Tameka Greer is the executive director of Memphis Artists for Change. She is also a member of the Black Southern Women’s Collaborative.