Recently, I was having breakfast at a local restaurant when I overheard a conversation in the booth behind me.
Two couples were discussing gun violence in Atlanta and its increasing death toll. One gentleman said that the problem of gun violence in Georgia, particularly in Atlanta, was bad but not as terrible as it is in New York City.
As a grandfather of two teenage girls, it pains me to read the likes of stories like that of the 13-year-old boy gunned down in the parking lot as he was exiting a skating rink in west Atlanta. I can only imagine the agony the mother of that young boy is still going through.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
Since the start of this year, at least 25 Georgia children and teenagers have been shot to death as the result of senseless gun violence. Not long ago, 2 children were shot dead and 7 wounded at a sweet sixteen party in Douglasville.
I was born and raised in New York City, but have lived in Atlanta for the past 12 years. I know gun violence is a problem in New York, but with the words of those folks in the restaurant fresh in my mind, I went home and began to do some research, comparing gun violence in Atlanta and New York.
I learned that, overall, homicide by gun violence is at epidemic proportions across the United States. The March school shooting in Nashville was just one sobering reminder. According to the Kaiser Foundation, gun violence is the greatest cause of death among children.
When I researched the statistics in Atlanta compared with New York City, I learned that Atlanta has seen a dramatic rise in gun violence in children since 2019.
The city of Atlanta has a population of 496,000. During 2022, there were at least 42 children murdered by guns in metro Atlanta.
By contrast, New York City has a population of over 8.5 million. During 2022, there were 149 children under the age of 18 shot while 16 were killed by gun violence.
Georgia’s greater problem per capita with child victims of gun violence can be attributed to several societal problems, not the least being levels of poverty, loose gun laws and the dearth of mental health programs.
Georgia has some of the loosest gun laws in the country. Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law in 2022 allowing the carry of concealed handguns in public without a state license.
All of this has created an easy flow of guns onto our streets and into the very hands of the people killing our kids.
Now my purpose of this writing was to demonstrate the seriousness of gun violence impacting our children in Atlanta, but it’s also apparent that the problem exists throughout Georgia.
So far this year, children were shot and killed in the likes of Peachtree City, Savannah, DeKalb County, Madison County, Troup County and Habersham County, where a two-year-old child was killed with a pellet gun.
Despite its recent efforts, Georgia ranks nearly last in the country for access to mental health services. At the close of its session this year, state legislators failed once again to allocate new dollars for expansion of mental health services.
About 14% of Georgia’s population lives below the poverty line. Poor kids from poverty-stricken homes are easy targets from stray bullets and gang violence.
In February, U.S. Rep. Luci McBath announced that $7.5 million in federal money for gun violence prevention would be heading to Georgia. Hopefully, Georgia cities and counties will do their part as partners in this effort. But the wheels of bureaucratic intransigence often slow the progress of positive intentions.
In late March, it was reported in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the city of Atlanta in 2021 had received $5 million in federal funds that it had yet to disperse to local community anti-violence programs.
In January, New York City Mayor Eric Adams released a “Blueprint to End Gun Violence.” He spoke of praying with a mother whose infant was killed by a gunman’s errant bullet. He said that incident stays with him every day.
The mayor’s plan addresses the problem of gun violence in a comprehensive way. The New York City Police Department removed over 6,000 guns from the streets in 2022. He has implemented a Summer Youth and Empowerment Program, created the “Fair Futures Initiative” providing life coaches for vulnerable kids, expanded hospital based violence intervention programs, increased access to mental health services and established the “Sermons for Safety”, a partnership with faith healers throughout the city.
The mayor has appointed an anti-gun violence liaison in every city department and formed a crisis management system geared to prevent gun violence, particularly among children and teens. New York City applied for and received a $20.5 million grant in 2021 from the U.S. Treasury Department to support programs aimed at reducing gun violence impacting the city’s youth.
That’s how a city acts proactively to deal with the problem of gun violence.
The outrage over gun violence in Atlanta has now reached a boiling point. Faith leaders and grassroots organizations are frustrated with the lack of a meaningful response to the senseless killing of children by gun violence. Pastors speak of the seemingly endless funerals they conduct for children.
Yet, both the city of Atlanta, other municipalities and the state are paralyzed, spinning their wheels in a malaise of inaction and indecisiveness.
Maybe it’s time for Atlanta to take a page out of New York City’s playbook and begin to take its problem of gun violence more seriously.
When I was a boy, I once asked my father why do people say and do dumb things? He put his hand on my shoulder and said softly, “some people are just guilty of wrong thinking.”
Atlanta, stop your wrong thinking and save our kids. They desperately need your help.
Tom Graham, of Roswell, is a retired hospital vice president.
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