Harris uniquely positioned to tackle gun violence in Black communities, advocates say

Addressing the issue is a top concern for Black Americans, who are nearly three times more likely than white Americans to die by a gun.

Gun violence is yet again at the forefront of the national consciousness following Wednesday’s deadly high school shooting in Winder, Georgia. The tragedy that struck Apalachee High School, where four people were killed and nine others injured, has renewed calls for stricter gun laws from Democrats and gun safety advocates. 

“We have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all,” Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said hours after Wednesday’s shooting at a campaign event in New Hampshire. She added, “It doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be this way.”  

Advocates see Harris as the only and best candidate to build on progress in reducing gun violence, particularly in Black communities. Tackling the issue is a top concern for Black Americans, who are nearly three times more likely than white Americans to die by a gun.

According to a study conducted by the gun safety advocacy group GIFFORDS, 74% of Black voters want to see stronger gun laws. The survey, part of a $15 million campaign to highlight the issue of gun violence leading up to the Nov. 5 general election, also found that half of all Black voters are “extremely concerned” about the prevalence of gun violence in their communities compared to 24% of the overall voting population. 

“They’re more impacted by community violence, everyday violence, the type of violence that, in comparison to mass shootings, for example, doesn’t get the proper coverage, the proper attention that is necessary to help tell the story of what is happening in these communities,” Aneesa McMillan, communications director at GIFFORDS, told theGrio. 

GIFFORDS, which was founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, a survivor of a 2011 assassination attempt, has endorsed Harris in the 2024 presidential race. Giffords praised Harris’ “steadfast leadership” on the issue of gun violence, adding that the Democratic nominee will “save lives.”

McMillan says Harris has been a “key partner” and “gun safety champion,” both as a U.S. senator and now as vice president. Harris currently leads the White House’s historic gun violence prevention office, which is tasked with implementing provisions from Biden’s Safer Communities Act that allocates $250 million toward community violence intervention programs. 

“It’s something that we know works in Black and brown communities,” said McMillan. 

Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, told theGrio that as the potential “first-ever Black and Asian American woman president of the United States,” Harris will “build upon that transformative progress as the first-ever Black and Asian American woman president of the United States.”

“She is not just a symbol of possibility –  she is a powerful force in shaping policies to keep our families safe,” said Ferrell-Zabala, who noted that Harris strengthened gun safety laws as attorney general in California and, as a U.S. senator, co-sponsored legislation to expand background checks and prohibit abusers from having guns.

She continued, “She genuinely understands the devastating reality of this uniquely American crisis that disproportionately impacts communities of color, and that we need to invest in the holistic, local solutions that have been created by those communities being impacted.”

In her remarks in New Hampshire, Harris noted that during her “Fight For Our Freedoms” college tour last fall, she asked students on each campus to raise their hand if “at any point between kindergarten and 12th grade you had to endure an active shooter drill.”

“I’m telling you, every time, the auditorium was packed, and almost every hand went up,” said the vice president. 

Harris, along with President Biden, Democrats and advocates, have called for Congress to go further than the Safer Communities Act, which expanded background check requirements and established new criminal offenses. Gun safety proponents also want to see a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and establish universal background checks.

According to the GIFFORDS survey, 50% of Black voters attributed the issue to a lack of mental health services and 49% blamed the nation’s gun violence epidemic on weak gun laws. Forty-seven percent of Black voters cited easy access to guns, and 40% blamed loopholes in gun laws.

Kristin Powell, principal of Black to the Future Action Fund, told theGrio that gun violence is also tied to economic policy.

“If we have a robust economic agenda that is really bringing Black people out of poverty, then we’re going to see community gun violence go down,” said Powell.

According to the organization’s Black Census, Black voters’ concerns about gun violence are three-pronged: community violence, white supremacist violence and police violence.

Though gun violence continues to plague the nation, there are signs that the work of the Biden-Harris administration is working. Data shows gun violence victimization is trending downward in 2024. However, advocates say they are concerned about the implications of former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump winning the election in November.

“What happens to the [White House] office of gun violence prevention if, god forbid, Donald Trump is reelected?” queried McMillan. “We know that he will take pride in not addressing the issue or seeking to undo the progress that we have made because of his alliances to the NRA [and] the gun lobbyists.”  

On Thursday, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance, faced criticisms for saying that school shootings were a “fact of life.” He also misleadingly claimed that Harris wants to “take law-abiding citizens’ guns away from them.” He and Trump also have called for tighter security for schools as a solution, though the National Education Association notes that hardening school security does not prevent school shootings.

“Donald Trump and JD Vance think school shootings are a ‘fact of life’ and ‘we have to get over it,’” said Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa, referencing a previous remark Trump made following an Iowa school shooting in January.

“Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know we can take action to keep our children safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” said Moussa. “Donald Trump and JD Vance will always choose the NRA and gun lobby over our children. That is the choice in this election.”

“To elect someone who has relentlessly fought for women and gun violence survivors, whether it was during her days as a prosecutor or as vice president, means something,” Ferrell-Zabala told theGrio. “Because in order to create a brighter, safer future for everyone in America, we need a president who understands and responds to those of us who have been systematically ignored.” 

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