GVPanorama: Understanding the Root Causes of Gun Violence
GVPanorama: Understanding the Root Causes of Gun Violence
Gun violence in Black communities is often portrayed as something inevitable, instead of highlighting the underlying social issues that lead to the violence.
While on the search for recent gun violence prevention news for our weekly "Friday Finds” feature, we often come across editorials, personal stories, or wider-lens articles that don’t necessarily fit into a “current events” window. With “GVPanorama” we will highlight some of these thought-provoking pieces.
This is a concise and imapactful op-ed, from the Virginia Mercury, explaining the complex and often frustrating manner in which the root problems of gun violence have so far not been fully dealt with — specifically how the impacts of violence “on communities of color are not considered part of the broader gun violence debate. These communities are often ignored, and their stories are not heard,” mostly due to systemic racism and bias. Statistics are addressed and solutions suggested as to how the GVP community can change this narrative.
The columnist, “Rachelle Hunley, Director of the Crime Gun Initiative, has extensive experience implementing evidence-based policies and programs developed in collaboration with various stakeholders, from law enforcement to community organizations. Her experience includes developing and leading programs for gun violence survivors. Previously, she served as Co-Chair of the Inspire Workgroup, spearheaded Richmond’s Gun Violence Prevention Framework in collaboration with the City of Richmond, and provided technical assistance to hospitals around the Commonwealth to establish hospital-based violence prevention programs.”