Unlocking Gun-Violence Solutions: The Necessity and Power of Lived Experience

Abstract

<i>This article contributes to our national understanding of gun violence by incorporating in our analyses the perspectives of the young men most likely to be victims and/or perpetrators of gun violence in urban areas.  It also describes a more complex gun violence crisis by taking into account the environment in which many young Black men live and learn and how those settings contribute to their gun possession decisions. This focus on environment underscores the contextual differences between mass and school shootings compared to urban gun violence. The cities where our respondents live are marked by violence and few positive opportunities. By the time they were 15 years old, the majority of our study participants knew someone who had been shot, many knew someone who had been killed by a gun, and the majority had been arrested. On the contrary, few had significant adjucation or incarceration records and most were either in school or had graduated from high school. The findings represent the lived experience of 364 young Black males living in high crime cities. The interviews were conducted in collaboration with community partners in Baltimore, MD, Jackson, MS, Houston, TX, and Wilmington, DE.</i>

Understanding the Perception of Place and Its Impact on Community Violence

“…In their opinion, surviving this environment required a gun. As we previously described elsewhere, 6 all knew where they could easily obtain a gun and two-thirds acknowledged currently possessing a gun. Our study respondents explained that they possessed a gun for safety, and some noted that they needed a gun to protect themselves from enemies and others that they were “beefing with.” The young men were introduced to guns at an early age, typically by friends or family members.…”

“…In brief, we found that the young men in our study possessed guns because it was necessary to survive in the environment. 6 In this article, we explore our respondents’ perception of their city and the violence that characterizes it. We also examine their explanation of the violence and their perception of how they contribute to the violence.…”

“…In turn, we tend to prioritize individual level interventions and fail to address the community level factors embedded in the socioecological public health model. Findings from a recent study 6 examining gun possession in four cities characterized by high levels of crime and violence highlights the need to understand how those most likely to be victims and perpetrators of violence view and adapt to their environment. In this article, we further examine the perception of place and its impact on community violence among African American males between 15 and 24 years who possess guns and live in cities marked by high crime and high violence.…”

It Takes a Village

“…The study was coordinated and managed by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund with funding from the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research. A more detailed description of the study and its findings are presented in the American Journal of Qualitative Research, titled Unlocking Gun-Violence Solutions: The Necessity and Power of Lived Experience 15 and summarized in the Dillard et al article, titled Understanding the Perception of Place and Its Impact on Community Violence , included in this DJPH issue. For the collective action presentations, findings specific to Wilmington, Delaware were presented.…”