Gun violence is a critical public health crisis in the U.S., a point made painfully clear yesterday in Georgia yesterday morning, and over Labor Day weekend in Chicago. And despite the Biden Administration’s passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), which became law in 2022, and Vice President Harris’ decades-long push for gun safety and state leaders make use of federal support to end gun violence, not all have sought its support.

The BSCA provided for, among other protections, the hiring of 14,000 in-school trained mental health professionals. It was not only being the most significant gun protection measure in 30 years, but the most significant federal investment in student emotional wellness in the nation’s history.

But it was still burdened by a 1996 congressional budget amendment that restricted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from using its funds to support gun control initiatives, according to the Daily Montanan. It was tucked in by Jay Dickey, an Arkansas Republican with ties to the NRA. Shockingly, the amendment boldly stated, “None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”

While there are many current actions in place, including school metal detectors and increased policing in schools and communities–specifically ones that have a majority Black population– they are not and have not been the answer, The Washington Post reported back in 2021. Determined shooters will shoot their way through them. Or shoot through windows. Or shoot students entering or dispersing from school–but still on campus grounds.

Proper, and culturally grounded risk assessments and mental health supports that are supported by appropriate research, are proven to be far more effective in schools and communities. But those take critical thinking and implementation. Machines and police do not. They are the performance of security rather than the thing itself–which is largely why Black people are nearly 14 times more likely to die by gunshot than white people.

Black children are the greatest victims of America’s gun laws

In 2021, guns accounted for half of all deaths among Black teens aged 15 to 19. That year it was also found that 17 out of 100,000 Black children died from gun violence, versus 3 out of 100,000 white children and 1 out of 100,000 Asian children. By 2023 CDC, unshackled from research, revealed that its data proved Black children were and are significantly more likely to die from firearm-related incidents compared to children of other races.

But that’s not the whole terrible story.

In February, NewsOne reported  in a special series, America in Crisis: Black Child Suicide, that young Black people– including children as young as five—who die because of guns, are more often cases of suicide, not homicide:

The cascade of headlines about young Black people and gun-related deaths never scream that most of those deaths are deaths-by-suicide, not homicide.

Black children are cast as monsters in the public imagination but more accurately should be cast as targets.

An April, Pew Research reported that gun-related deaths among children and teens have surged since the pandemic, with those aged 1 to 18 being especially affected. The study found 2,279 firearm deaths occurred among this age group in 2021–a mortality rate that jumped  an alarming 50% since 2019.

To put things in perspective, in 2019 — before the pandemic — there were 1,732 gun deaths reported among American children and teens under the age of 18. That grisly figure soared to 2,590 in 2021. Suicide and homicide were among the largest single categories for gun deaths among children and teens in 2021, accounting for 92% of the total causes that year.

Georgia–and states across the union–have long been on Kamala Harris’ mind…

Vice President Harris has led the Biden Administration’s work to stop the bloodshed. In March of this year, during her visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Harris made.another official call to action for all states to not only pass red flag laws, but to use the federal funding provided by BSCA  and the newly launched National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center.

The Center is a first of its kind initiative designed to assist states in effectively implementing their red flag laws, which temporarily remove firearms from individuals deemed to be a risk to themselves or others.Her push, if listened to, would enhance overall public safety.

Heartbreakingly, leaders including those in Georgia–a state with some of the nation’s  weakest gun laws where colleges and universities are required to allow guns on campus, and where there is still a Shoot First law allowing a person to kill another even when that person could easily walk away from harm—also chose not to protect its students by mandating in-school risk assessments, which may have stopped the shooting yesterday from happening in the first place.

SEE MORE:

Georgia School Shooting: Cops Showed The Kind Of Restraint Unarmed Black People Rarely Receive  

Black Kids Are More Likely To Die From Guns, New Data Shows

 

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