The White Home held a celebratory occasion on the Rose Backyard on Friday, marking the creation of the first-ever Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention. The White Home and Black leaders in attendance informed theGrio that with this new historic workplace, the intersection of race and gun violence have to be a precedence.
The brand new workplace, overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris, will concentrate on implementing coverage cures to sort out America’s ever-constant gun violence disaster, together with over a dozen government actions and the bipartisan gun reform legislation handed by Congress in June 2022.
Up to now, there have been greater than 31,000 deaths and 27,000 accidents by the hands of gun violence in the US this yr alone, in accordance with information from the Gun Violence Archive.
Analysis additionally reveals that gun violence impacts Black and different marginalized communities disproportionately and intersectionally.
“Black Individuals are 10 instances extra prone to be victims of gun violence and murder. Latino Individuals are twice as doubtless,” stated Vice President Harris throughout Friday’s White Home ceremony flanked by President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., the youngest elected member of Congress who launched his 2022 marketing campaign to finish the gun violence disaster.
Not solely are hate crimes on the rise, however in some elements of the US, an individual convicted of a hate crime can nonetheless legally purchase or possess a firearm.
“We want individuals who don’t deserve entry to weapons to not have them,” Tennessee State Rep. Justin J. Pearson informed theGrio whereas on the White Home occasion. “This workplace should tackle the intersection of race and gun violence.”
Pearson turned of nationwide prominence after he and one other Black state lawmaker, Rep. Justin Jones, had been expelled from the Tennessee State Home for protesting towards the state’s gun legal guidelines.
The 28-year-old lawmaker stated it’s vital to maintain on the forefront “who’s being disproportionately impacted by acts of racial terrorism and by gun violence.”
Pearson continued, “The advocacy that the White Home can do on the state degree and on the native degree is the kind of work that has to occur to ensure that us to get extra simply options.”
NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who additionally attended the White Home ceremony, informed theGrio that it’s “completely vital” that the Biden-Harris administration approaches the gun violence epidemic by means of a racial lens.
“We’re glad to see the administration taking motion underneath government order to deal with gun violence, but additionally recognizing gun violence has a hate tint to it,” stated Johnson. “And in order a lot as we are able to hold individuals protected, this administration ought to do all inside their energy to take action.”
Throughout his remarks, President Biden championed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that Congress handed final yr, which boosts background checks and gives $250 million in neighborhood violence intervention and prevention initiatives.
Nevertheless, Biden referred to as on Congress to transcend the bipartisan legislation by banning assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines. “I’m not going to be quiet till we get it accomplished,” he stated.
Simply earlier than the White Home gun security occasion, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre held a press briefing with U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia, who misplaced her 17-year-old son, Jordan Davis, to gun violence.
Davis was shot and killed whereas in a automobile together with his buddies by a white gunman who complained about them enjoying loud music at a fuel station. The 2012 capturing was believed to be racially motivated.
Whereas talking to reporters, McBath stated, “I used to be robbed of each dream {that a} mom holds for her youngster.” She added, “No one desires to expertise what I’ve.”
The congresswoman praised President Biden for “taking the decisive motion by declaring loudly and clearly we do not need to stay this manner.”
Jean-Pierre informed theGrio that along with the work forward for the brand new White Home Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention, the intersection of gun violence and race have to be a precedence for the administration.
“We hear tales of various brown and Black communities, rural communities, city communities being affected by gun violence, and sufficient is sufficient,” stated the Biden spokesperson.
Jean-Pierre stated the brand new workplace will “assist speed up” the actions taken by the White Home and Congress “in order that we are able to get to a spot the place we’re not sending our youngsters being frightened in school as a result of there could be gun violence at their faculty or going to a grocery retailer.”
She added, “That’s the significance of this workplace – to essentially get to work and speed up the work that we’ve been doing.”
Gerren Keith Gaynor is a White Home Correspondent and the Managing Editor of Politics at theGrio. He’s primarily based in Washington, D.C.
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