Give kids a chance: Stop violence in their neighborhoods

 

 

In a new book about improving education in high poverty communities, entitled How Children Succeed  written by Paul Tough, a New York Times journalist (see his story about poverty in Roseland in the NYT  Sunday Magazine on August 10, 2012), we recognize that children cannot learn with guns in their hands. They cannot learn with guns in their communities and on their blocks either. The stresses of poverty, the threats and trauma of gun violence is no doubt frightening for children in Chicago.

 

Tough takes us into the worlds of education administration, pediatric medicine and neurobiology to learn that poverty, stress, trauma and toxic environments impose enormous negative impacts on bodies and brains of young children. The impacts of violence cause some adolescents to be unable to control their impulses and negative feelings. Their brains become literally unable to manage the heavy load of changes associated with adolescence and the toxic stress in their communities.  Impacts of violence also cause long-term health consequences for children – as adults they are significantly more likely to have heart disease, addictions, depression, liver disease, diabetes and lung cancer.  The connections between adverse and traumatic experiences for children, and negative adult health outcomes are “stunning.”

 

At the end of the Chicago teacher’s strike this fall, we are reminded that education – even with top-notch teaching – cannot become our country’s solution to poverty and violence.  Children deserve a quality education – but they need and deserve much more from us. We need to ensure they do not grow up in abject poverty or in environments that expose them to everyday risks of violence and gun shots.  This week marks the 3^rd anniversary of the brutal and unimaginable death of Derrion Albert on a street near Fenger High School in September 2009 – when adolescent boys assaulted and killed him using planks of wood as weapons.  

 

I am proposing that we use the anniversary of Derrion’s tragic death to renew our collective commitment to children to ensure they will have communities with less violence, less risk of harm, fewer murders and fewer guns in the hands of individuals who should not hold them. The Illinois House will have an opportunity to consider a Handgun Registration Act (HB5831) in the next few months, that requires gun owners to register their guns with the Illinois State Police and renew their registration every 5 years. Registration fees will be used to improve the State data base of information on individuals who cannot legally own a gun because they have a history of criminal activity or mental illness, that makes them highly likely to be dangerous.  Gun registration will reduce illegal trafficking in guns and reduce risks that guns will be sold to and reach the hands of people who cannot lawfully purchase a gun.

 

This bill, if it is enacted, does not put significant burdens on individual gun owners. It simply requires registration – as we already register cars.  This is a small burden – when we realize the extraordinary costs of gun violence.  A 2011 study supported by CeaseFire – a successful violence interruption initiative in Chicago – reports that medical costs to treat a shooting victim in Chicago average $45,000.  Criminal Justice costs for arrest, investigation, prosecution, and conviction for a homicide case is $183,000. Researchers tell us that indirect or intangible costs of violence can be 3 – 4 times the direct costs.  So each act of gun violence that results in a death will cost the victims, the city and its communities $625,000 to $912,000.  When the number of murders in Chicago increases by 50 additional deaths, we add grief and pain to victims and families and we add $31 million to $45.6 million to the costs of murder to our city.

 

A 2012 study by a Washington DC think tank estimates that Chicago experiences costs and economic losses of $5.3 billion a year from violent crime (see “The Economic Benefits of Reducing Violent Crime” Center for American Progress, June 2012). They estimate Chicago loses as much as $20 billion a year in decreasing property value caused by violent crime.  If we can prevent guns from being in the hands of many people who would be highly likely to use weapons to harm people, we could reduce these costs by 10%-25% and we could make streets, neighborhood blocks, and schools safer for children.