There is a narrative that has been recently gaining traction among some folks that “ #GVP hurts POC.” Here’s why that can be true and also not true. +

Guns and police have their roots in enslavement and slave patrols. Guns have been used against indigenous folks and also enslaved folks. (I’m intentionally using the word enslaved.)+

Gun violence today also disproportionately affects people of all colors, but especially young black men. When we work to PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE, we are intentionally working to save black lives.+

Doing deep work in our communities hardest hit by gun violence has been proven to effective, this included violence interruption on the streets and in hospitals. This is what federal funding will go to. Community based violence interrupters. +

Suicides account for 2/3 of all gun deaths. If we can prevent suicide by firearm by removing the means, that person has a better chance of surviving from any other means. ERPO/GVRO can help with this. Suicides among black folks and teens are on the rise. +

Gun laws can be unfairly used against POC. I can confidently say that this is an awareness and an explicit intention of every major GVP org today, and it wasn’t discussed many years ago. We have many diverse voices at the table working to assure this doesn’t happen. +

Could POC still be targeted? Sure, but that is not the intent. The alternative is having no laws? That’s not an option. The truth is that owning a gun makes you LESS SAFE. +

You are less likely to protect yourself with a gun + more likely to have it used against you or for someone in your household to use it intentionally/accidentally. A gun does not make you safer. And with our system of policing, being a gun owner of color is a risk. +

However, we know that with more guns than people in this country, guns are not going away, so we need to be safe and responsible. We need to lock guns and ammo away from children or unstable people. +

We need to be intentional in writing legislation and when advocating to pass laws that there are measures in place and data collected in order to prevent disproportionate impacts on communities of color. +

And we need to #FundPeacemakers and continue to lift up the work of folks doing the hard work in their communities to prevent violence from occurring at all by preventing poverty, supporting families with childcare, healthcare, good jobs, and more. +

I think we need to continually pushback against a narrative from the gun lobby who really just want to sell guns to everyone possible. They don’t care who dies. The recent push to arm women and POC is just that. It’s peak capitalism really. And more guns do not make us safer