Event Reflection: Gun Violence in America
On November 13th, 2024 The Bahá’i Chair for World Peace hosted a virtual symposium discussing gun violence in America. Dr. Jaclyn Schildkraut and Dr. Thomas Abt presented their thoughts and findings on the epidemic of gun violence.
Dr. Schildkraut started off with the shocking fact that there have been 455 Mass public shootings between 1966 and 2023. She explains the most common locations that shootings occur are workplaces, followed by schools because assailants are choosing places they're familiar with and understand the daily life of these places “giving them a sense of comfort and emboldens them to carry out their attack”. Assailants also choose times and spaces where they know a great amount of people will be grouped together such as a cafeteria during lunch time.
In her presentation she provided a visual of the never ending cycle of inaction in which there is a devastating event, the world grieves, people forget, the government sits idly by and another shooting occurs. She detailed the importance of background checks and how individuals choosing to purchase firearms must go through rigorous investigation to be deemed capable of possessing a firearm.
Dr. Abt continued the conversation with a presentation explaining the different types of gun violence and how it affects communities. In order of most common gun violence he lists gun suicides, gun homicides and mass shootings. 70% of gun homicides are community gun violence and 20% are domestic gun violence.
He defined community gun violence as violence that occurs unrelated to individuals who may or may not know each other and is usually outside the home. He provided information on the cost of community gun violence and the specific impact it has on children growing up in these areas. Another aspect of community gun violence he highlighted is that it thrives on injustice. Anti-violence efforts must include representatives of impacted communities.
He provides people based approaches to decreasing gun violence in the U.S. He listed some as Identifying those most likely to be involved in violence, engaging and stabilizing them by providing safety and security, treating unhealthy, thinking, unsafe behavior and unaddressed trauma, offering educational and employment opportunities and punishing those who persist with swift sanctions.
This talk provided insightful information on mass shootings, responses to them and approaches to prevention. More work can and must be done to prevent school shootings and create barriers to accessing firearms.
You can access the full video here
About the Author
Nina-Abbie Temisan Omatsola is an undergraduate student working as a research intern with the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace. She is pursuing a dual major in Psychology and Theatre at the University of Maryland-College Park. Her interests include quality education for all.
