How to address gun violence

This post is written by Marrianne McMullen, Director of Communication, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

• The problem: After years of steady decline, gun violence in the United States is once again spiking.

• Why it matters: Gun violence is devastating to individuals and communities, and it is exacerbating already glaring inequalities among Americans by race and economic status.

• The solution: From police reform, to economic support, to community-based programmes, cities across the US know what works to reduce gun violence; these initiatives need to be implemented at scale.

On October 12th in Chicago, a young man emerged from a car and opened fire at Patterson High School as the doors opened for afternoon dismissal. A 14-year-old girl was shot, as was a security officer. As I write this, the day after, the girl is in critical condition and the security officer is in fair condition. And an entire school community is devastated. A prayer circle was forming the next morning as I rode my bike past the school on my way to work.

This is just one gun violence episode among thousands annually in the United States. And their frequency is rising. The New York Times recently looked at 37 U.S. cities and found an 18% increase in murders in the first three months of 2021 versus the first three months of 2020.

Chicago leads the nation in total homicides, though it ranks behind many other cities when measured by the rate of homicide by population. But we are reaching a new crest. Shootings in Chicago are up 15% from the same point last year, and more than double the level they were two years ago. The hardest-hit neighbourhoods are geographically concentrated and demographically distinct: predominantly African American and Latino low-income communities.

There is some evidence that the safest neighbourhoods – more affluent, more white – are actually safer than they were two years ago.

“Every part of the city has to be engaged and you have to be focused on the causes.”

Tackling the crisis

We are not just dealing with an immediate crisis; gun violence grows out of and perpetuates devastating inequity. Black and brown communities are experiencing trauma that impacts everything from grade school performance, to mental and physical health, to high school graduation, to decreased property values.

As demoralising as the frequency and impact of homicide may be, we have been here before. And we know a little about what works. In February of 2019, Chicago CRED (Create Real Economic Destiny) organised a city-wide event featuring five mayors from cities that had successfully achieved double-digit percentage reductions in gun violence. It’s time to revisit and apply their effective strategies.

"The U.S. is faced with a domestic crisis of violent crime that is exacerbating inequality. There may be no one answer, but there are many tested and proven strategies."

Here is what those mayors said we need to do:

Trustworthy Police: “If the community doesn’t trust your police department, you are not a safe city,” said Betsy Hodges, the former mayor of Minneapolis. Adrian Fenty, former mayor of Washington, DC, credited much of DC’s homicide reduction to hiring the right chief — a woman from the community who came up through the ranks.

Neighbourhood-based Programming: In Los Angeles, former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa launched Summer Night Lights. “We opened eight, 16, then 32 parks in the places of highest gun violence in the city,” Villaraigosa said. “We were open from 7 p.m. to midnight, Wednesday through Sunday. It was midnight basketball on steroids. We did soccer, Zumba for moms, we had movies, we fed people. And we invited gang members. We said, ‘come to the park – you are welcome.’”

They saw a 75% reduction in gun violence in those neighbourhoods. “There were problems from time to time,” Villaraigosa said. “We had a couple shootings near the park on nights when we were open.” The response to the problems was predictable: some people wanted to shut down the parks. “But we stuck with it because we knew it was working.”

Community Engagement: Residents of Minneapolis were asked to develop their own community-based strategy to address crime, and then the city invested in those strategies. “It was public budgeting meets public safety,” said Hodges. “Every part of the city has to be engaged and you have to be focused on the causes.”

Concentrate Resources: In Los Angeles, public safety dollars were not distributed evenly; they were spent where they were most needed. They also invested in an academy for former gang members. The police department objected to the academy, but the city did it anyway. As a result, retaliation shootings went down dramatically.

Nourish Young Men: Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, said our young men involved with violence are telling us something, and we need to listen. “You have to create places where these young men have sustenance,” he said, whether that’s through music, recreation centres, libraries or other programmes. “If you give a kid love, opportunity, security, resources – they are going to act like everybody else in America who has all that,” said Landrieu.

Ambitious Goals and Public Accountability: Michael Nutter, the former mayor of Philadelphia, stressed the need to set an ambitious homicide reduction goal and to “hold yourself publicly accountable to reaching that goal.” The public urgency of those goals spurs effective strategy. Philadelphia, for example, took early public policy steps to ensure the positive reintegration of people who had served time in prison. The efforts ranged from “banning the box” on job applications that asked about criminal records, to providing tax credits to employers who hired returning citizens.

As we close in on nearly two years of an international public health crisis, the U.S. is faced with a domestic crisis of violent crime that is exacerbating inequality. There may be no one answer, but there are many tested and proven strategies. It’s time to invest in them at scale.

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