Event Reflection: Gun Violence in America
On November 12, 2024, The Bahá’i Chair for World Peace hosted a virtual event on Gun Violence in America.
The guest speakers, Jaclyn Schildkraut and Thomas Abt, presented their research on mass shootings, public, and legislative responses.
On November 12, 2024, the Baha’i Chair hosted an event on Gun Violence in America. The event was held virtually on Zoom. This symposium featured two speakers, Thomas Abt and Jaclyn Schildkraut, who presented their research about mass shootings, public, and legislative responses. There are so many people that are victims to gun violence in America, leading this issue to be urgent and critical due to its detrimental effects. Dr. Jaclyn Schildkraut explains how important it is to understand the definition of mass shooting and how we come to think of these events.
Dr. Jaclyn Schildkraut explains her personal experience where she has dealt with gun violence, such as the Parkland shooting at her former high school where someone killed 17 people and wounded 17 others. Another instance includes her college experience in 2016, which was the 16 months of the most lethal mass shootings in the United States, and 49 people were killed and 53 were injured at one of their LGBTQ+ nightclubs. These experiences have deeply impacted Schildkraut and most definitely the communities where the tragedies occurred.
In the United States, 1,625 people were killed and 2,407 injured due to gun violence. are widespread impacts that encompass and engulf entire communities. Throughout the event, Dr. Schildkraut explains the timing of mass shootings and how that corresponds to location. The way the media announces mass shootings and reports breaking news in a cycle impacts how the public responds to trying to get more information and demand action from the government. This leads to the politicians trying to respond; however, we do not see a lot of action from the Federal government. With all of this information, Dr. Schildkraut introduction interventions and response that have been put in place to reduce gun violence, such as background checks at point of transfer or point of sale. Overall, Dr. Jaclyn Schildkraut explained many insightful facts and information behind gun violence in America.
Thomas Abt is the Founding Director of the Center for the study and practice of violence reduction at the University of Maryland in College Park; he also teaches as the Associate Research Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Dr. Abt is the second guest to speak at the Gun Violence in America event. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for young people in America, causing more deaths compared to motor vehicle crashes and drug overdoses (Goldstick et al,. 2022).
In America, there are five major types of gun violence including gun suicides, gun homicides, community gun violence, domestic gun violence, and mass shootings. From the Center for Gun Violence Solutions, there have been 48,204 lives lost to gun violence in 2022. Dr. Abt explains the terrible consequences of community from gun violence, detailing that there is no way to quantify human suffering, but each homicide costs $10-19 million in criminal justice, medical, and other costs. There are place-based approaches that use focused, balanced, and fair strategies to take three steps in high risk and high opportunity micro locations: institute problem and community oriented policing in hot spots, follow up policing with place making, and supplement policing and place. These interventions are put into place to decrease gun violence.
From the Gun Violence in America event, Thomas Abt and Jaclyn Schilkraut explain the dangers of mass shootings, demanding to do something to prevent the next tragedy. They highlighted legislative responses and various interventions to reduce gun violence in the United States. I learned a lot from this talk and have a better understanding behind gun violence and mass shootings. The event is recorded and accessible to watch on the Baha’i Chair Youtube Channel here.
About the Author:
Kai-Lin Yu is the Social Media and Marketing Intern at The Bahá’í Chair for World Peace. Kai-Lin is a sophomore at The University of Maryland pursuing a double major in Marketing & Operations Management and Business Analytics along with a minor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
