KATY ENDRESS
Peoria City/County Health Department

Firearm violence has been a major topic across the nation and in our own Peoria area. It is a leading cause of injurious death and has doubled in cases in Peoria from 2020 to 2021. Last month in our Part 1 article, we looked at a variety of conditions that have contributed to high rates of gun violence, especially with victims primarily among Black males between the ages of 15-29. Now let’s look at important strategies and programs that have proven through research to reduce rates of gun violence in this population.

Societal level

Interventions at the societal level will benefit communities across the country. These include policies that would make gun ownership safer. One such policy would be to standardize a licensing process for firearm owners in every state. In Illinois, it is required to obtain a firearm owners identification card, but despite the documented effectiveness of this policy, not every state has a similar law — leaving licensing states vulnerable to trafficking from weak laws in neighboring states.

Passing this legislation at a federal level could significantly reduce firearm violence in communities across the country. A licensing policy would need to include requirements for passing a complete background check and providing proof of adequate safety training. This type of policy was passed in Connecticut and has since produced significant decreases of 33% and 28% in rates of firearm-related homicides and suicides, respectively.

Across all states that have passed this legislation, studies evaluating the impact of these laws have found that they are associated with lower firearm homicide rates, lower rates of fatal mass shootings, and even lower rates of law enforcement officers shot in the line of duty. Polls have shown that more than two-thirds of gun owners (68%) support licensing laws.

Community level

At the community level, strategies focusing on the conditions that promote violence, such as reducing blight and sprucing up neighborhoods, can be implemented to help counter the decades of disinvestment and reduce the current rates of gun violence. In Philadelphia this was achieved through a city ordinance to fine building owners for buildings without doors or windows and that were in neighborhoods with more than 80% occupancy.

By placing the responsibility for remediation on the building owner, remodeling the physical environment has shown to be a cost-effective strategy that can significantly reduce rates of gun violence.

In Philadelphia, a study of this intervention showed a statistically significant reduction of 39% fewer firearm assaults at or near abandoned buildings after they had been remediated. Efforts to provide assistance to building owners based on income have shown returns on investment for the prevention of firearm violence to be $5 to taxpayers and $79 to society for every dollar spent. Remediation of vacant lots also contributed to significant reductions in firearm violence and the return on investment was $26 and $333, respectively, for every dollar spent.

An additional community intervention would be adding more trees to vacant lots from a study evaluating the relationship between tree canopy and crime rates across the Baltimore region and in Chicago. These studies showed “increased greening and greater tree canopy in public housing areas were associated with significantly less violent crime and reports of aggression by residents.”

These types of cleaning and greening neighborhood improvements have been shown to reduce perceptions of crime, vandalism, and safety concerns while increasing use of outside spaces for relaxing and socializing. Interventions such as these are scalable, sustainable, cost-effective, and have the opportunity to reduce gun violence, creating a safer and healthier future for residents.

Individual level

At the individual level, street outreach programs, that work directly with individuals at greatest risk of becoming a victim or perpetrator of gun violence have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing gun violence. This public-health-centered initiative treats violence as an infectious disease and interrupts its transmission at the source to mitigate the spread.

Using this intervention, Chicago saw a 48% decrease in shootings in just the first week, while Baltimore noted 5.4 fewer homicides and 34.6 fewer nonfatal shootings. In addition to successfully decreasing gun violence, these types of interventions provide employment opportunities for high-risk individuals who might otherwise be unable to find regular and meaningful work in communities that often have high rates of unemployment due to disinvestment.

Peoria and Cure Violence

Because these interventions have shown promising results in reductions in gun violence, Peoria has begun working with Cure Violence Global to start a violence interruption program in areas of the city to stop the spread of violence and create a safer and healthier future for our community. Visit the Peoria City/County Health Department website at www.pcchd.org for more information on gun violence prevention and watch the progress as we move forward with Cure Violence in Peoria.

— Katy Endress, MSN, MPH, FNP-BC, is Director of Epidemiology & Clinical Services at Peoria City/County Health Department with expertise and special interest in gun violence as a public health issue.