{"id":97849,"date":"2021-08-24T06:59:06","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T11:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=97849"},"modified":"2021-08-24T06:59:06","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T11:59:06","slug":"auto-draft-686","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2021\/08\/24\/auto-draft-686\/","title":{"rendered":"US Communities Plagued by Gun Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 On any given day,\u202fthe\u202fsound of rapid gunfire shatters the\u202fpeace of the Columbia Heights neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C. \u2014 a troubling occurrence for\u202fthose\u202fwho live in this gentrified\u202fcommunity.<\/p>\n

“It’s sickening to see all these shootings and the lives impacted by the senseless violence,” said Kevin Grayson, a\u202fWashington\u202fresident who recently moved from Maryland. “Last month, I heard three exchanges of gunfire in a\u202ffive-hour\u202fspan,\u202fand several people were wounded,” he told VOA.<\/p>\n

The July 22 shootings were on the same day gunfire erupted in the busy 14th Street entertainment district. Two men were wounded in a flurry of gunshots that sent restaurant patrons and pedestrians running for cover.<\/p>\n

“The gun violence speaks to the\u202fbrazenness\u202fof the criminals in these communities,” D.C. Metropolitan\u202fPolice Chief Robert Contee said to neighborhood residents a day after the shooting.<\/p>\n

The nation’s capital,\u202flike many cities across the U.S.,\u202fis grappling with rising cases of gun violence since the start of the coronavirus pandemic more than a year\u202fand\u202fa\u202fhalf ago.\u202fThe shootings have disproportionately affected African Americans,\u202fclaiming thousands of lives, destroying\u202ffamilies\u202fand shaking\u202fthe sense of security.<\/p>\n

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\"FILE<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
FILE – Emergency paramedics treat victims of a shooting in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in May 2020. The nation’s capital has seen a rise in gun violence since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. (Chris Simkins\/VOA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It’s mostly Black-on Black crime,” said Robert,\u202fa\u202f22-year-old\u202fAfrican American man who didn’t give his last name. He recounted recent shootings over the past several months, claiming most are drug- and gang-related.<\/p>\n

“In some cases, bystanders are caught in the crossfire\u202fbetween people trying to kill each other,”\u202fhe said.<\/p>\n

Nationwide,\u202fgun-related deaths\u202fthis year\u202fare 14%\u202fhigher than\u202fover the same period in\u202f2020, according to the\u202fresearch group Gun Violence Archive.<\/p>\n

“I hear people say\u202fall the time\u202fthey don’t feel safe in the community with so many guns on our streets,” Contee said\u202fin testimony before the\u202fWashington city council last month.<\/p>\n

Homicides in Washington are at a 16-year high.\u202fIn response,\u202fpolice have beefed up patrols in neighborhoods with high numbers of shootings. Some community leaders believe the increased enforcement has done little to reverse the trend.<\/p>\n

The summer of soaring gun violence in Washington captured national headlines after\u202fthe July 16 shooting death of Nyiah Courtney. The 6-year-old was killed by gunshots from a car as she rode a scooter\u202fto her home in Congress Heights\u202fwith her family. Her\u202fmother, father and three others were wounded.<\/p>\n

The next day,\u202fnearly 6.4 kilometers from Congress Heights, thousands of terrified sports fans scrambled for cover\u202fas gunfire erupted\u202foutside Nationals Park, Washington’s professional baseball stadium,\u202fwhere\u202fthree people, including a\u202fbystander,\u202fwere shot\u202fand wounded.<\/p>\n

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\"Jul<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
FILE – Fans take cover after apparent gun shots were heard during the game between the Washington Nationals and the San Diego Padres at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., July 17, 2021. (Brad Mills-USA Today Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the past month, Contee\u202fhas listened to\u202fresidents’\u202fconcerns and is vocal about the problems he sees with the criminal justice system. City officials reported a backlog of more than 10,000 pending cases at the D.C. Superior Court in July.<\/p>\n

“The courts are barely open because of the coronavirus,\u202fso cases from last year involving violent criminals were not disposed of,” Contee said. “So, those people are still in our neighborhoods.”<\/p>\n

Shootings, homicide rates up\u202f\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

While violent crime in the U.S.\u202foverall\u202fis lower than it was five years ago,\u202fshooting and homicide rates are up. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence\u202fsaid\u202fthat\u202fon average,\u202f316 people are shot every day in America,\u202fand\u202f106 die. Criminal justice experts believe the\u202fescalation\u202fis linked to the economic downturn and the\u202flarge number\u202fof gatherings following months of stay-at-home\u202forders\u202fdue to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Police in Chicago have taken nearly 8,000 guns off the\u202fstreets,\u202fbut the nation’s third-largest city still\u202fhas\u202frecorded more than 494\u202fhomicides\u202fand 2,200 shootings this year.\u202fMore than a dozen people were killed and 125 were shot over the course of several weekends in August.<\/p>\n

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\"Police<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
FILE – Police tape marks off a Chicago street as officers investigate the scene of a fatal shooting in the city’s south side, June 15, 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gun crimes are\u202faffecting\u202fBlack communities in\u202fsmaller cities\u202fsuch as\u202fBirmingham, Alabama, with\u202f122\u202fhomicides\u202flast year, the most in 25 years.\u202fNearly 90%\u202fof the victims were killed by a gun,\u202fand 75%\u202fwere young Black men,\u202faccording to a\u202fstudy by\u202fthe\u202fnews media\u202fwebsite AL.com.<\/p>\n

Leaders of Birmingham’s\u202fAfrican American community announced in June\u202fa $125,000 reward for information leading to arrests in five shootings \u2014 $25,000 per case \u2014 involving children younger than 10 injured or killed by gunfire since February. Two-year-old Major Turner was fatally wounded while sitting with his mother in their house on February 4.<\/p>\n

“The community is fed up with\u202fthe\u202fsenseless violence against children,” pastor Thomas Beavers said at a news conference announcing the reward. “We have the power to be the change we want to see in Birmingham.”<\/p>\n

Gun\u202fviolence\u202freduction\u202fprograms\u202f\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In July, U.S.\u202fPresident Joe Biden\u202fannounced new\u202fplans\u202fto tackle gun violence.<\/p>\n

“While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, we know there are some things that work. And the first of those that work is stemming the flow of firearms,” Biden said.<\/p>\n

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\"U.S.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Biden Undertakes New Attempt to Curb Gun Violence<\/div>\n
US leader meets with key municipal and police officials<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

The\u202fJustice Department\u202fhas\u202flaunched five firearms strike forces to\u202ftarget\u202fthe illegal flow of weapons across state lines.<\/p>\n

The administration\u202fis\u202falso\u202fworking with\u202fattorneys\u202fgeneral from several states and the District of Columbia to hold gun manufacturers and dealers accountable. Biden wants lawmakers to repeal a law\u202fthat\u202fgives gun manufacturers blanket immunity when their products are used to commit crimes.<\/p>\n

In local\u202fcommunities,\u202fleaders\u202fare launching new initiatives.\u202fLast month, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called for the hiring of more police officers. In February, she adopted a $15 million program called “Building Blocks DC,”\u202fwhich focuses on a public health approach to gun violence\u202fprevention and engages people most at\u202frisk of becoming a victim or perpetrator of gun\u202fcrimes.<\/p>\n

“We recognize the scourge of gun violence and are committed to reversing these trends and saving lives,” Bowser\u202fsaid in a statement unveiling the program.<\/p>\n

In Baltimore,\u202fofficials last month unveiled a five-year crime reduction plan that\u202faims to reduce gun violence by 15% per year.<\/p>\n

“We want to make sure we have the resources to break up groups that are trafficking weapons into Baltimore,\u202fwhere we know 60% of the guns come from another state,” Mayor Brandon Scott said in a July interview with CNN. “We want to get people off the streets that are committing gun violence in our neighborhoods.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 On any given day,\u202fthe\u202fsound of rapid gunfire shatters the\u202fpeace of the Columbia Heights neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C. \u2014 a troubling occurrence for\u202fthose\u202fwho live in this gentrified\u202fcommunity. “It’s sickening to see all these shootings and the lives impacted by the senseless violence,” said Kevin Grayson, a\u202fWashington\u202fresident who recently moved from Maryland. “Last month, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latests"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97852,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97849\/revisions\/97852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}