Gun Violence among African American Community

Gun Violence Effect on African American Community
Introduction
The African American community has faced the brunt of the criminal justice system in the aftermath of gun violence. For starters, the violence takes a toll on these communities. The violence that emanates from the use of guns and other incidences of shooting rips families apart and tears the family and community fabric. There's often a second devastating effect that results from the violence. The police frequently have to stop members of the colored community on the streets and run inspections. The outcome is that the community becomes suspicious of the law enforcement authorities. Indeed, any government departments, including but not limited to the police, are under thorough scrutiny regarding the treatment of people of color. There are calls for reforms in the justice system owing to the disproportionate numbers of people of color in incarceration. Also, the increase in gun violence across the populace and the states has triggered public outcry for changes in the judicial system to bolster the safety of the public(Urban Institute, 2016).
System failures to address the challenge of systematic discrimination, inability to restrict guns from being accessed by deviant elements that are likely to misuse them, and failure to allocate resources in gun violence prevention programs, all converge to exacerbate the gun violence crisis (Amnesty International, 2020). Societies across the globe are trying out new approaches to reduce or even prevent the incidence of gun violence. Some methods seem to be working and could be emulated. Violence reduction efforts that are enforcement-based can produce instant results. However, they call for continuous coordination. Scholars and analysts have argued over the years that changing the social paradigm is the true resolution to gun violence. Changing the social norms that encourage violence holds the key to success in these efforts. The public health approach to dealing with violence follows a similar template (Butts, Roman, Bostwick& Porter, 2015).
This paper will give an overview of a policy for the prevention of gun violence.
Policy Development
A policy document is usually drafted by an individual or an agency that has been conferred with the authority to complete the task. For national policy issues, such an agency could be a team of employees of the government or a consultant contracted by the government to act on its behalf. Whichever the case, the group or individual selected for such a task must be knowledgeable and conversant with policy formulation guidelines. More importantly, the person or agency chosen should have the capacity to work with stakeholders harmoniously. The views of all stakeholders must be brought on board before a decision to formulate policy is arrived at. For the present project, a policy document would be crafted in an easy-to-understand form. The use of highly technical phrases would then be avoided whenever possible (Schopper, Lormand&Waxweiler, 2006). Mental health professionals will also be included in the policy development process. The trauma of a community may be an outcome of the violent experience. The trauma may predispose violence, in turn, promoting a vicious cycle of violence. Mental health experts can be deployed to help with psychological issues that arise from violent experiences by citizens. They could help build resilience and promote healing through the use of strategies that reconstruct social relationships and links in addition to reclaiming public spaces. There is a need to conduct more studies to enhance impact control patterns, how to solve problems, anger management, and empathy.
Similarly, more information is needed concerning how these functions interact with the unwanted norms highlighted in the earlier recommendations. We can use the public health approach to get to grips with such dynamics as who perpetrates the violence and who is at the greatest risk of violence. This is a way of finding permanent solutions to the problem. The detailed analysis could help signal us to the networks and how to react when functions have been compromised.
Keys Traits
The characteristics of the policy are as follows:
· Restricting access to ammunition: Research has demonstrated beyond doubt that there are benefits linked to restricted access to ammunition. The policy recommends extending the background checks for the purchase of ammunition. Alternatively, the ammunition purchase should also be used to track down individuals who are likely to be prone to abuse of firearms or in illegal possession of the same. Besides, it should be made sure that access to dangerous weapons is limited by outlawing dangerous magazines, bump stocks, calling for foolproof background checks, imposing waiting periods, and reinstating the ban on assault weapons urgently (Prevention Institute, 2020).
· Restricting access to firearms to young people and those likely to harm themselves and or others. Restricting guns access from those who have had a history of violence against their partners and family, those who have been convicted previously because of violence related crimes should be considered. This can be done through the expansion of lethality assessment checks, orders restraining gun violence, or supporting bills against domestic violence.
· Keeping checks on the gun industry. The marketing and distribution of ammunition and guns should be adequately monitored. It has been found that 5% of dealers in guns sell 90% of guns that are used in crimes. These need to be held accountable. States should also be required to pass laws that demand that sellers obtain licenses from such states, keep records of the sales they generate open up to inspection among a raft of requirements. Gun manufacturers enjoy special legal protection, which leads them unaccountable to the law and prone to flouting the law at will. The gun industry immunity legal provisions and laws need to be reviewed and repealed where they exist. They should be prevented from being enacted in states that do not yet have them. Owing to the lack of legal stop gaps, gun manufacturing companies are increasingly being put under pressure by the public and consumers to account for their operations, including what they make, the quantities manufactured, and who and where the finished products are sold.
· Insist on compulsory training of gun owners. There should be a recurrent education program, especially for permit renewal. There should also be a graduated licensing procedure, just as it is for drivers of automobiles
· Extending access to culturally competent, coordinated, emotional, social, and mental health support, and dealing with traumatic cases would add to the holistic gun violence deterrence strategies. Rather too many instances of gun violence are being linked to mental problems when the culprits do not have a history of diagnostic mental illness. However, across communities, members easily pick out those who have mental issues and need support and or treatment. It is also important to deal with and reduce the stigma associated with mental health. For such an approach to succeed, communities require resources to assess and link persons at high risk to coordinated social service and emotional support institutions, particularly in times of crisis. Also, trauma could affect learning negatively. It could also damage one's health and behavior in the course of life, particularly during the critical developmental stages of a child. Trauma can increase a wide range and form of violence. There is a demand to do more to recognize trauma in our populations, develop well-advised protocols for dealing with it, and render support healing for those affected. These measures should take on even those who have merely been exposed to violence and not necessarily been direct participants or targets.
· Support research on gun violence: sufficient resources should be directed to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) to encourage them to research the matter, and give direction that is based on scientific knowledge (Prevention Institute, 2020).
Collaboration
Stakeholders should be more involved in the policy to succeed. Small details such as the logo to appear on official documents could have a far-reaching effect on the reaction of stakeholders towards the policy. If some individuals or groups are not willing to participate in the formulation process, they should at least be informed of the proceedings. Some may, in the process, board the train. The success of crime prevention strategies relies on utilizing the skills of all potential players. Therefore, stakeholders need to identify the most urgent problems and evolve mechanisms for solving them. The approach will help in outlining the key issues that affect a particular society concerning crime. The strategy is centered on the assumption that no one individual or agency can solve crime problems alone(Schopper et al., 2006).
The policy above has been crafted, bearing in mind the relevant research. Research has contributed to the design and evaluation of policies that govern gang and gun issues in the recent past. Research plays two key roles: scientific knowledge enables us to identify the risk factors related to interest behaviors. Identification of the risks is core to the success of any crime prevention strategy. The approach to solving problems is the second contribution that research plays in the development of these gang and gun crime prevention strategies. It has its roots in the \\\"Boston Gun Project.\\\" A private agency such as a university is engaged as a private partner in the project design. They also help in implementing and evaluating it. The private partner uses data from both the police and interviews conducted with the leaders of the community, residents, and the youth who could be members or non-members of gangs in the target locations. The efforts may yield confirmation of the suspects of crime from conventional wisdom. In other cases, such conventional wisdom has been dismissed (Tita et al., 2007).
Social Work Values
Individuals at the highest risk of being victimized as perpetrators of violence, such as those who have been incarcerated before and their kith and kin face numerous challenges. These challenges include a lack of skills for work, unemployment, and deprived educational opportunities. They may also be suffering from trauma resulting from their experience in incarceration. Social services could mitigate violence that emanates from these situations, but, unfortunately, they are underfunded. Our recommendations of policy formulation include
• Enhancing support for community programs that incorporate law enforcement agents, social service agents, social dispute mediators and people predisposed to committing a crime
• Investing in wide spectrum care services that cater to people predisposed to committing a gun crime, including providing counseling for trauma victims, mental health treatment services, job training drug treatment, among others.
• Freely share data and develop homicide review programs to help in strategic planning
• Organize for frequent meetings of stakeholders to develop strategies to curb and prevent gun violence practices, with an outlined performance measurement system (Urban Institute, 2016)
Effectiveness of Policy
For a policy to be successfully implemented, the practical aspects must be carefully discussed and concerns addressed in its development. Local and national priorities must be reviewed and set. The responsibilities of each player must be clearly defined. There must be a clear co-coordinating mechanism developed. The financial and human resource needs must be assessed and tackled beforehand by identifying funding resources and specific human resource bases to being used. Limitations and constraints of the policy should also be reviewed. It is only after all these actions have been performed that consensus can be expected to be reached between all stakeholders, and implementation seamlessly done (Schopper et al., 2006).
To show that there can be progress results in the short term, even as the mission is geared towards achieving long term goals, the policy may be split so that there are those aspects that deal with rapid preventive outcomes. It can be split within 12 months, the ones that have to take time between a year and 36 months and those that target outcomes in three years and longer. The policy effectiveness can be monitored by maintaining a record of incidents of gun violence and their frequency happening before the implementation of the policy and after it has taken effect (Schopper, Lormand & Waxweiler, 2006).
The results from the approach can be impressive because the recommendations are the brainchild of appropriate research. Coordination of agencies charged with crime prevention is a complex affair. The intervention measures are equally tricky. Those trusted with preventing crime incidents and intervening are usually suspicious of the intentions of the law enforcement agents. On their part, law enforcement is likely to overlook or ignore the role of the alternative strategies. The philosophical stands on how problems should be solved may also pose a challenge and trigger tension among committee members. It is notable that the overriding challenge, though, has to do with resources for funding the project.
Conclusion
Everyone realizes that there are many economic, cultural, and political forces directing the gun violence epidemic in America. Prevention is a well-known policy goal (Butts et al., 2015). Families, communities, and American society in general struggles with daily tragedies that cause untold pain and loss. We must change our culture and policies to stem the cycle of gun violence. we should reach a point where we can live in our homes without fear and send children to school and generally just live in peace without having to jolt and jerk in worry of where the next gunshot will come popping from (Prevention Institute, 2020). As highlighted earlier, the role of the targeted communities in the fight against gun control should never be overlooked.



References
Amnesty International. (2020). Gun violence-key facts. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/arms-control/gun-violence/
Butts, J. A., Roman, C. G., Bostwick, L., & Porter, J. (2015). Cure violence: A public health model to reduce gun violence. Annual Review of Public Health, 36, 39-53. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031914-122509
Prevention Institute. (2020). Gun violence must stop. Here's what we can do to prevent more deaths. Retrieved from https://www.preventioninstitute.org/focus-areas/preventing-violence-and-reducing-injury/preventing-violence-advocacy
Schopper, D., Lormand, J. D.,&Waxweiler, R (eds). (2006).Developing policies to prevent injuries and violence: guidelines for policy-makers and planners. Geneva, World Health Organization.
Tita, G. E., Troshynski, E., & Graves, M. (2007). Strategies for reducing gun violence: The role of gangs, drugs, and firearm accessibility. Research Report: National Crime Prevention Centre (NCPC). Retrieved from https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/rdcng-gn-vlnc/rdcng-gn-vlnc-eng.pdf
Urban Institute. (2016). Engaging communities in reducing gun violence: A road map for safer communities. Research Report, The Joyce Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/80061/2000760-engaging-communities-in-reducing-gun-violence-a-road-map-for-safer-communities.pdf