According to the latest Vital Signs report from the CDC, gun related homicides rose 35% nationally between 2019 and 2020. The disparity of Black homicide victims has continued to grow, and counties with the highest poverty rates saw nearly five times the homicide rates as wealthy counties. Dr. Debra Houry with the CDC says healthcare plays an important role in reducing firearm related deaths, especially those linked to suicide.
Houry says “We’ve seen that counseling paired with a safety device can result in improved safety measures. And there’s also and initiative called CARDIFF that we actually piloted here in Atlanta to where it involved different sectors, healthcare, law enforcement and community members to look at the data to see who is being injured, and then how do you prevent it.”
The City of Jackson has had a growing homicide rate since 2019, now having one of the highest rates in the nation. Local officials have partnered with the state to curb this violence, but advocates say there is still much work to be done. Pastor Lorenzo Neal of New Bethel AME Church is a senior fellow with the Everytown Survivor Network. A gun owner himself, Neal says he supports ownership but wants more programs to promote gun safety.
“Accessability to guns by teenagers and by persons who should not have weapons is still a big issue. And something that we can address, at least the legislature needs to address, is how do we keep guns out of the hands of persons who should not have them,” says Neal. “How do we deal with the issue of gun trafficking here in the State of Mississippi and across the country.”
Advocates say if someone is experiencing thoughts of suicide, they should contact the suicide hotline.
