After Sandy Hook, we said never again. Seven years later, we’re still burying our children.
They came — one by one — to stand in front of a packed church with a picture of their loved ones. They each said only a name and an age. Some wept, but even for those who did not, the weight of their grief and the strength of their courage echoed through the church with every syllable of their loved ones’ names. One young woman from Pennsylvania shared a moving tribute to her dad — the kind of dad whom she endearingly recalled would answer a simple “yes or no” question with a 45-minute monologue and plenty of tangents along the way.
She lost her father to gun violence when she was almost eight years old. Every person who shared a name and an age had lost a loved one to gun violence. They came from across the country to join together in prayer, reflection and remembrance at the 7th Annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence in Washington, D.C. Those names and stories were a call to action, but also a somber reminder of the anguish that our communities experience because of gun violence. Seven years ago today, we all shared that anguish with Newtown, Connecticut, when 20 children and six teachers and administrators were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The Sandy Hook shooting is a tragedy that will persist in our Nation’s collective memory and weigh on our conscience for decades to come. Unfortunately, Newtown is just one of many communities that we now routinely associate with gun violence. When we hear references to Columbine and Pulse, or Tree of Life and Parkland, we know that these communities are bonded together not because of culture or location, but because of the horror of gun violence and the enduring grief that follows.
Gun violence in America is not simply a mass shooting problem. Twenty children died at Sandy Hook, but seven years later, our communities are still ravaged by gun violence. As of this month, 106 children have been shot in Philadelphia this year alone. They have been shot walking home from school, sitting in a car, playing outside — even just sitting at home. In 2019, a child has been shot in Philadelphia, on average, every 3.7 days. As we continue to mourn the lives lost at Sandy Hook seven years ago, we are also confronted with the reality that the federal government has failed to take any meaningful action to protect our children from the scourge of gun violence.
Every year, approximately 2,900 children are shot and killed in the United States, while another 12,700 are shot and injured by firearms. African-American children in urban communities are disproportionately exposed to this violence as firearms claim the lives of 10 times more black children than white children. Some reports estimate that approximately three million children witness a shooting each year, drastically altering their sense of safety and well-being for the remainder of their lives.
Dr. James Garbarino, an expert on child development, and his colleagues explained that children exposed to gun violence experience significant “negative short- and long-term psychological effects,” including sleep distortion, post-traumatic stress disorder, decline in cognitive performance, depression, grief, a desensitization to violence and antisocial behavior. All of these outcomes contribute to a harmful, perpetual cycle of violence.
Inaction by the U.S. Senate is inexcusable. In total, more than 1,350 people have been shot in Philadelphia this year. On average, that is approximately four people per day. For too many Philadelphians, those statistics represent people — sons, daughters, cousins, friends, moms, dads, classmates and neighbors — that were lost too soon to gun violence.
Gun violence is not simply the result of a failure to pass commonsense gun measures. It also is the consequence of housing, education and economic disparities throughout our country. It is a suicide issue. A domestic violence issue. A children’s issue. Communities that have been historically marginalized are plagued by the profound impacts that gun violence has had on their institutions and on their way of life. It is a public health epidemic that must be treated as such.
To confront a problem of such magnitude and complexity can certainly seem overwhelming, but for years, American ingenuity, research prowess and determination have solved or mitigated some of the world’s most pressing public health epidemics. We have not surrendered to problems before and we must not surrender to the epidemic of gun violence now. Common sense dictates that we should have universal background checks to ensure that dangerous people cannot acquire firearms. However, it is essential that we focus on the root causes of gun violence in our communities.
Localized violence prevention programs have reduced gun violence in communities by targeting those at the highest risk of being impacted by gun violence — either as a shooter or a victim — and working to intervene or mediate conflicts before they escalate to tragedy. One of these types of programs, Focused Deterrence, was used in Philadelphia from 2013 to 2015 and resulted in a 35 percent drop in shootings in the targeted neighborhoods while shootings increased by 6 percent in other non-targeted neighborhoods.
These programs work, but local governments cannot fund them alone. Just as the Senate should debate and vote on universal background checks, Congress must help local and state governments fund these life-saving and data-driven intervention programs. These investments will not only mitigate violence and ensure that our children and neighborhoods are safe, but they will break the cycle of violence that continues to fuel negative economic, social and emotional outcomes infecting communities across the country.
At the National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence I was reminded that in times of tragedy, our Nation can find great strength. The family members and friends who shared the names and stories of their loved ones came together not simply to find strength in community, but also to inspire action through grief. Their courage and resolve may drive us forward, but we cannot let them shoulder this burden alone. As we enter 2020, the U.S. Senate must answer their call to action. For more than 280 days, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to allow the Senate to debate or vote on H.R. 8, the bipartisan universal background checks bill that was passed in the House of Representatives in January. Too many of our children — too many names and ages — cannot wait another 280 days before Congress takes action to break the cycle of gun violence. Together, let us honor the lives lost not only through vigils and memorials, but through action, legislation and lasting change in 2020.
