U.S. won’t get behind ‘common sense’ gun laws, but in reality, that’s only the first step | Editorial

Daoyou Feng, Paul Andre Michels, Hyun Jung Grant, Soon Chung Park, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Eric Talley, Rikki Olds, Lynn Murray, Tralona Bartkowiak, Teri Leiker, Kevin Mahoney, Denny Stong, Suzanne Fountain, and Neven Stanisic.

You have probably heard their names and stories in the news recently — the victims of the anti-Asian hate massacre in metro Atlanta and the mass shooting in Boulder, Colo. Yong Ae Yue, 63, who was murdered in Atlanta, had two sons. Tralona Bartkowiak, 49, who was murdered in Boulder, was newly engaged.

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Here are names you probably haven’t heard:

Emiliano Montero, 23, who taught himself everything he could about car mechanics.

Wahseem Mason, 15, a basketball player and huge Lakers fan.

Daniel Robinson, 33, an essential worker known as a stylish dresser.

Ebony Pack, 30, a mother and a nurse who cared for COVID-19 patients.

These are just a few of the most recent names on the Philadelphia Obituary Project’s website, an effort to honor lives taken by homicide in the city. The victims of this violence don’t get national coverage, or spark debates on the floor of Congress. The predominantly Black victims of gun violence in Philadelphia don’t fit the mold of the national gun-control debate — one intensely focused on mass shootings in environments like schools and supermarkets, where people are seen as entitled to a level of safety, unlike those in some of our city’s neighborhoods.

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Many pointed to the tragic mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder as bitter proof that the United States was getting “back to normal.” But that narrative dismisses the fact that 2020 was, thanks to gun violence, one of the deadliest years in decades for many American cities. Philadelphia had 499 homicides in 2020, a 40% increase from 2019. There are already 111 homicides in 2021 through March 23. Mass shootings didn’t stop either.

Gun violence was the norm before the pandemic and it has only escalated. Whether it will stay the norm is up to leaders in the city, state, and federal government.

After every high-profile mass shooting, there are immediate calls for gun control. After the recent shootings, President Joe Biden called on Congress to enact gun laws, including an assault-weapons ban. There is absolutely no reason for a private citizen to own such a weapon of war. But an assault-weapons ban would have virtually no impact on gun violence in Philadelphia. Of the more than 700 homicides in 2018 and 2019, only nine were committed with an assault weapon.

It is important to recognize that there are different types of gun violence — each requiring different solutions. Violence induced by hate and white supremacy is different than a school shooting or domestic violence, and all are different than the type of violence that plagues Philadelphia — often called group violence, when a small number of men engage in cycles of retaliation, toggling between victim and perpetrator. And none of these is the type of gun violence that claims the most lives every year. That tragic distinction goes to suicide by gun, responsible last year for 24,000 deaths.

Gun-control measures — in the form of safe storage laws, purchase to permit, universal background checks, and red flag — are important steps to reduce the flow of guns. The fact is, America is drowning in guns.

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Because of Republican obstructionism, whether in Washington or Harrisburg, so much energy is devoted to the same arguments over gun control instead of moving the conversation to where it needs to be: What are innovative ways to address the reasons so many men choose to pick up a gun in the first place?

Earlier this month, Mayor Jim Kenney hosted a gun-violence briefing. We heard mostly from police about guns recovered and a bit about the smorgasbord of programs that haven’t been evaluated. Where are the new ideas?

In Chicago, READI couples cognitive behavioral therapy with jobs. In Richmond, Calif., Advance Peace is engaging those most likely to shoot or be shot. What both programs have in common: They are targeted, invest significantly, and have been evaluated to show results.

It is time for the post-mass shooting debate to move on — first by enacting gun control. Second, by designing, implementing, and evaluating solutions to gun violence with the same rigor, investment, and speed that ultimately delivered the coronavirus vaccines.