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How 1 gun led police to those responsible for at least 5 homicides and dozens of shootings

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The investigation by Cincinnati police and the ATF showed how guns move through the city, how teens and young men can get them and how they are used.

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At the end of May, a spate of high-profile mass shootings brought the urgent conversation around gun control in the U.S. back into the national spotlight. A racist massacre in a grocery store in Buffalo saw 10 Black people killed and three others injured by a white supremacist on May 14. Ten days later, a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, became the third deadliest school shooting after Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook, with 19 students and two teachers killed. In the wake of these devastating events, politicians on both sides of the aisle have made efforts-however fraught-to enact policies addressing the epidemic of gun violence that continues to plague America.

The first bipartisan agreement on gun safety in years is currently being deliberated in the back rooms of Capitol Hill, with 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats in the Senate proposing new legislation that would see enhanced background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21 and those with a history of domestic abuse being prohibited from purchasing firearms. There would also be a provision for so-called red-flag laws allowing law enforcement to confiscate weapons from potentially dangerous individuals and additional funding provided to support mental health and safety initiatives at schools. But while it marks a rare moment of cooperation between the two parties, many expect it to hit an impasse as soon as it reaches the House floor.

Still, to focus too much on change at a governmental level is to miss half the story. Across America, nonprofits and community projects have been fighting for decades for gun-violence prevention to be taken seriously-and by taking matters into their own hands, they have led the charge on the kinds of grassroots-level initiatives changing the cultural attitudes around guns.

Many activists cite the historical debates about drunk driving, smoking, and seat belts as examples of how, over the course of just a generation or two, a social stigma can drive concrete legislative change. Others cite the precedents set by the Civil Rights and LGBTQ+ rights movements over the decades as proof that the power of protest and unrelenting pressure can eventually deliver results, however long they might take. But all are united in their belief that the only way to foster real change around gun violence in America is by keeping the momentum going, even when mass shootings aren't making headline news.

Here, we speak to five activists who have been doing the work for years-some even decades-about the patience needed to keep the conversation up, how many of the most critical developments are taking place on a community level, and what we all can do to keep the dialogue around gun violence moving forward.

Amber Goodwin, Community Justice Action Fund
Amber Goodwin is the founder of the Community Justice Action Fund, a leading gun-violence-prevention organization working on policy, education, and building resources centered on communities of color. Goodwin was part of the Biden-Harris transition team as the organizer for gun-violence-prevention groups and also currently works as a law clerk. She previously served as the advocacy director for Giffords and has worked as an organizer for more than 20 years.
I grew up in a small town in West Texas where guns weren't a major issue. When the Charleston shooting happened in 2015, it really changed my perspective on gun policy in America. The people who were shot and killed looked exactly like my family members and me. Whenever these mass shootings happened in predominantly white communities, there was always this huge upswell of support for policy changes. But whenever it was people of color or Black people as the victims, those policy solutions weren't there. So I decided we needed to create a home for people of color and Black folks who didn't feel included in that political conversation around solutions to end gun violence.

If you look at the numbers of those who are disproportionately impacted by everyday gun violence, it's Black people, Latinx people, and Native people. A major reason why it's important for our voices to be heard is that we're directly impacted by this issue every single day. I say this as someone who has worked on Capitol Hill and in legislative offices-the solutions are going to come from the community. There are so many people within those communities who are also filled with hope about what is possible; they just haven't been given the self-determination or the tools or the resources to be able to do the work. The smartest people I have met working on the gun-violence-prevention movement are on the front lines. There is this hyper-focus on what's happening in Congress when there are so many incredibly rich solutions that are happening in our communities every day-we just need people to support those doing it.

I've been working in policy for over 20 years, and I've been doing this specifically for about eight, but I have seen some significant shifts. Six or seven years ago, when there were congressional hearings on background checks, you weren't hearing from Black and brown people unless they were survivors telling their stories-they were never given the self-determination to say: These are the solutions that we want. But in the past five years, there's been a tremendous amount of work done in bringing community violence intervention and Black-led organizing policies to the fore. It's been a long time coming, but it's also been incredible to see. I think there's still a long way to go in terms of how women, and especially Black women, are treated inside the movement of gun violence prevention, and we need to make sure the voices talking about this issue are reflective of the people who are directly impacted by it every day. But I do believe things are changing.

I'm 42 years old now, but for about 20 years, I was a swimmer. I was a Division One athlete all the way through college and captain of the swim team. As a Black woman in America, I had to be very disciplined to excel at that, and I think it helped me be a very focused person. So I think about the people who have come before me and the people who are coming behind me-and ultimately I know that not only is another world possible but also that Black people, people of color, our people, all the people who are committed to this work will always be worth it.

I've had the worst times, I've had the best times, I've cried myself to sleep, but there will never be a day where I wake up and think: Is this worth it? Because I know this is the work of my life, and this is what I will do for the rest of my life. -as told to Liam Hess

To support the Community Justice Action Fund, visit their website here.

Delaney Tarr, March for Our Lives

Delaney Tarr is a cofounder of March for Our Lives, the youth-led movement to end the scourge of gun violence established after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February of 2018. Tarr will graduate from the University of Georgia in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in journalism and a minor in women's studies and has reported for outlets including UGA's Red & Black newspaper, Pavlovic Today, and Grady Newsource.

When you're in a movement space that is so built around these horrible, tragic moments, it's hard to narrow down self-care as the way to keep going. A lot of us do have self-care practices-I love to cook, I love to write and journal-but those can only take you so far, and I think that's why a lot of what keeps us going in these moments is systems and communities of care between each other.

When we started the March for Our Lives and were touring the country, we created these communities of care with other young activists and people who had been impacted by gun violence, and being able to be there for each other was amazing. There is an unspoken bond between people who have experienced gun violence, and it can be easier to share that bond with another person rather than have to explain it to a stranger or make the people who care about you try to understand exactly what it feels like.

We're as there for each other as we can be; I have friends from high school who still reach out to this day whenever we see the news of another shooting, just to check in with each other. There is self-care at hand, but it's so much more about how we can be there for each other, because it is so isolating and exhausting to do this work. -as told to Emma Specter

To read more of Delaney Tarr's writing, visit her website here.

Mark Barden, Sandy Hook Promise

Mark Barden is cofounder and CEO of the Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund, where he focuses on policy and outreach efforts to advance sensible solutions that will spare other families the pain of losing a child to gun violence. In addition to his work with Sandy Hook Promise, Mark's immediate and extended family have created a foundation called What Would Daniel Do? to honor the extraordinarily generous and empathetic spirit of Daniel Barden, his son who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in 2012.

Just about every one of these horrendous mass shootings, as well as the daily drumbeat of gun violence that plagues our cities and the suicides and other acts of violence-almost all of them are preventable. We've done a lot of research, and we learned that evidence informs us there are always warning signs before something like this happens. And those warning signs all represent an opportunity to intervene and get somebody connected to the help they need before it becomes a tragedy. That has developed into our Know the Signs programs, where we train students at no cost around how to recognize those warning signs and tell a trusted adult or use our anonymous reporting system so that somebody can intervene and help that person before it becomes something more serious.

Today, we can speak to at least nine school shootings that have not happened as a direct result of students trained in our program who have followed that model and hundreds of suicides that have also not happened because students using the anonymous reporting system are telling a trusted adult, whether it's a tip based on their own feelings or identifying observed behaviors in somebody they know. We have trained nearly 15 million adults and young people so far.

Unfortunately, in the United States, a lot of that change and engagement comes at far too high a price. The question of how you keep people engaged is the greatest challenge of all. Right now we are reeling from a series of mass shootings that have been horrific. We are still trying to wrap our heads around innocent grocery shoppers being shot to death because they were Black in Buffalo or the horrific atrocity in Uvalde, where fourth graders were shot down in their classrooms. But in the weeks after that, there were more mass shootings that the news didn't really pick up at all.

When you see it on social media or in the news, it's everywhere you go and people are talking about it. They're raw, they're sad, they're angry, they're outraged. I'm asking people to hold onto that rage and not to allow themselves the luxury of soothing themselves and moving on. Hold on to it, and let it drive you, and think, What am I going to be doing next week? What am I going to be doing the week after that? Hopefully, of course, there won't be continuous news of more mass shootings driving this. But equally hopefully, folks can hold on to this pain and let it drive their advocacy. It needs to be a continuous conversation about this absolute epidemic of shootings that we are suffering here in the United States. It's not going to fix itself. It's going to take the engagement and activism of the American people.

And that can take many forms. It can be having conversations with your neighbors or talking to people on your social media networks about it after it's no longer in the news. Get involved with a gun-violence-prevention organization that resonates with your own values and help them with time or dollars or spread the word by volunteering. Call your legislators every day because those are the people you elected to represent you and look out for your well-being and they need to hear from you. That will save lives. Evidence-based research informs us that closing the loophole and introducing a federal background-check system, extreme-risk protection orders, red-flag laws, safe storage-all of these things will save lives and are consistent with the constitutional rights to own a firearm. So we have solutions. I heard Vice President Kamala Harris say last week that this is not like we're trying to formulate a vaccine-we have solutions available to us. It's going to come after enough people demand it consistently. -as told to Liam Hess

To support Sandy Hook Promise, visit their website here.

Erica Ford, LIFE Camp, Inc.
Founded in April 2002, Erica Ford's LIFE Camp, Inc. is one of the leading violence-prevention and -intervention organizations in America. Based in South Jamaica, Queens, the organization develops young leaders and provides youth and families with positive alternatives to violence, bullying, and other forms of antisocial behavior. Ford is the distinguished recipient of countless awards, has addressed the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, and has led a task force around violence prevention with Domestic Policy Director Ambassador Susan Rice and other members of the Biden Administration.
I've been in at least 20 shootouts in my life, and a lot of people who I grew up with got killed or went to jail for 20 and 30 years. I saw the impact of their incarceration or murder on their families, especially their children. I wanted to help break the cycle. I wanted to help people heal, I wanted us to live differently, and I didn't feel like this lifestyle of continuing violence was something that our children needed to be exposed to. So I committed to establishing an institution that can show you how to deal with your trauma, release your trauma, heal from your trauma, and not resolve your pain through interpersonal conflict.

With LIFE Camp, I wanted to create a vehicle that could be institutionalized-it's about how we can transform the conditions of violence in our communities across America, starting with South Jamaica, Queens. Together with some of my friends, we would work directly with young people, and we were able to shift the dynamics of gun violence in that particular community. We worked by helping them heal and showing them how to turn what they loved into a career-not just getting a job and not just going to school because their parents said they should but asking them: What do you really want to do with your life? It used to be the number one area for gun violence in Queens, but there have been zero incidents in the last year.

We constantly worked on how this tool could be sharpened, and when we took it to the mayor's office here in New York City, they said we had to work under the auspices of this evidence-based program called Pure Violence. But we said that's not enough. It doesn't deal with the trauma, it doesn't deal with jobs, it just dealt with taking the gun out the hand of that young person. We had to do more. And so we wrapped around that program a host of other services.

There are free legal services, and we provide group therapy, one-on-one therapy, family therapy, grief therapy-and we were able to get the city to believe in the concept and invest in it. We started with five sites and $5 million, and it grew across New York City, and now there are 33 sites and over $100 million. Within South Jamaica, we were able to go up to four years with nobody being killed. We were able to go up to 562 days with nobody being shot. And those kinds of things come about from working directly with the young people who statistically have the highest potential to be shot or to shoot someone to change their mindset but also to help them and their families heal from the vicarious traumas that exist from this community. In doing that, we were able to institutionalize our ideas and our program, and now it's a tremendous success across New York City, notwithstanding the impact of COVID.

I started getting involved in social justice and human rights, all of this work, when I was 22 years old. I'm 57 now, and the idea of freedom from suffering provides the determination to continue the marathon. That we have a right to live free from violence and to see the success in our communities and to see the work growing. To see the young people who say, "If it weren't for you, if it weren't for LIFE Camp, I'd be in jail." To hear parents talk about how what we do helped them live after their child was killed. This is my life, you know, but it's part of that hope that keeps me going.

It's about lifting up the voices of the voiceless, right? When mass shootings happen, the world jumps in. The world sees the necessity to cry and donate and get involved. But innocent Black and brown children are being killed every single day. So how do we humanize those children? How do we make those children part of our care package? That's what the media have the ability to do. There are people like me who are on the front lines, doing this work across the nation, and nobody knows our names, nobody is looking to invest in us. So how do we make peace popular? How can we change the trajectory of violence? Because passing legislation is not going to end violence. Changing the hearts and minds of people to not pick up those guns and shoot people when they're in pain or they have a conflict- that will reduce gun violence, that will reduce suicide. And that involves going into the blocks and communities. Telling those stories and humanizing the victims across America who look like me-that's what you can help do. Invite us into your living room and have a conversation. -as told to Liam Hess

To support LIFE Camp, visit their website here.

Nina Vinik, Project Unloaded
Nina Vinik founded Project Unloaded in 2021. Through creative and cultural campaigns, Project Unloaded establishes safe spaces for open conversations about guns and provides accurate information about gun safety. Previously, she was the program director of gun-violence prevention and justice reform at The Joyce Foundation for 14 years. Prior to joining the foundation in 2008, Vinik, an attorney, served as the legal director of Legal Community Against Violence, a nonprofit organization providing legal and technical assistance in support of gun-violence-prevention policy efforts nationwide.
Four or five years ago, I began to notice some really troubling trends outside of policy. When I started working on this issue two decades ago, gun ownership had been steadily declining over the previous 25 years. And most people at that time correctly believed that bringing a gun into their homes would make them less safe rather than safer. Today, that has completely flipped. Gun ownership is on the rise. And most Americans today believe the opposite. That, of course, is contrary to all of the evidence-and what's most interesting when you dig into that data is that the shift in perceptions about the risk and safety of guns has been biggest among younger people. So unless we take that on, it's going to be very hard to get ahead of this problem culturally. Our mission at Project Unloaded is to create a new narrative, and we're doing that by focusing on the next generation, talking to teens, giving them the facts about guns and the risks of gun use and gun ownership in a way that we believe can empower them to make a different choice.

One thing we have paid a lot of attention to is the work of the Truth Initiative to reduce teen smoking. For many, many years, they approached that challenge as a culture change, and they've seen great success from that approach. If you think about smoking, we've seen the same kind of cultural shift we had with drunk driving or wearing seat belts in cars. Smoking is not the cultural norm anymore. So that's a model that we've paid close attention to, and we believe that model can be applied to guns.

The coverage of this issue tends to center around political food fights, of whether you're pro gun control or anti gun control. One thing we've learned in our research is that the very polarized nature of that debate is a turnoff to a lot of people and certainly the young people that we are trying to reach with Project Unloaded. So I would say to the media make sure that you are covering other aspects of this issue outside of the political back and forth. There's an enormous amount of good work happening at the community level to try to address gun violence, particularly the violence that disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities. These are often small organizations that just don't get the amount of attention and limelight that bigger players in the space usually do.

This work can be frustrating, and it's certainly challenging. It's in the headlines so regularly, and there's no turning it off. But when someone asks me, "How do you keep doing this work?" my answer is just that somebody's got to do it. I know more people than I can count who have lost someone close to them through gun violence and who wake up every day to an empty seat at their dining table, and there's no way of turning that off. If they have the strength and the fortitude to keep going, then I can certainly keep going to help solve this problem-because we can solve it. We just need to be persistent, and we will solve it. -as told to Liam Hess

To support Project Unloaded, visit their website here.

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5 Gun-Safety Activists on Passion, Perseverance, and How to Keep the Conversation Going

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With many of the most critical developments around gun safety taking place on a community level, here is what we can all do to keep the dialogue moving forward.

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Gun violence is complicated. There are myriad ways to explore the issue, from sociology and history to criminology and public health. That's why we weren't surprised when a reader reached out with this question: "I'm looking for some good books that survey the whole gun violence issue in the United States. Recommendations?"

We asked the reporters and editors at The Trace, the only team of journalists dedicated to covering gun violence in America, to recommend the books that shaped their understanding of this critical issue. You can find the full list below.
Note: Purchasing the books here or via the links below supports our nonprofit newsroom - and independent bookstores across the country - through Bookshop.org's affiliate program.
Books on history, gun policy, gun culture, and the gun industry

Start at the beginning - and read about how the past influences the present.

Books on the intertwined history of guns and racial oppression

We've covered the history of Black gun ownership, how guns have fueled white supremacist violence, and the way each of these factors resonates today. The books below have influenced our reporters' work.

Books on community gun violence

Experts have studied for decades why some neighborhoods experience significantly higher rates of gun violence, and what it means for the people who live there. These books explore the complex answers.

Peace in the Hood: Working with Gang Members to End the Violence by Aquil Basheer and Christina Hoag
Documenting 40 years of lessons from Basheer's work in violence intervention, the book is written to provide insight into the culture of gangs and break down the process of peacemaking. Through a mix of personal anecdotes and practical advice, the authors aim to teach anyone to be an interventionist.

Books on gun violence as a public health issue

Many experts argue that treating gun violence like a threat to public health - as we might an infectious disease - could help to reduce suicides and homicides across the U.S.

Books on policing, crime, and the legal system

"Firearms shape every encounter between police officers and civilians," my colleague Champe Barton wrote in 2020. These books address this relationship, how it interacts with race in America, and the issue of firearms trafficking.

Want more? Try these recommendations:
Thanks to Greg Jackson for sending in suggestions included on our list.

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27 Books to Help You Understand Gun Violence

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Recommended reading from our reporters: These 27 books explore the U.S. gun violence crisis through history, criminal justice, public health, and more.

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by Julie Collins and Emily Swoveland
Over the past few years, gun violence has risen to the forefront of public consciousness. Much of the debate has focused on gun regulation and keeping deadly weapons out of the hands of potential killers, particularly those with mental illnesses. Unfortunately, far less attention has been dedicated to the impact of gun violence on victims. While individuals killed and injured in atrocities such as the Sandy Hook and Aurora Theater shootings are publicly remembered and mourned, victims of these tragedies are not limited to those men, women, and children killed, injured, or present during these horrific events. The consequences of gun violence are more pervasive and affect entire communities, families, and children. With more than 25% of children witnessing an act of violence in their homes, schools, or community over the past year, and more than 5% witnessing a shooting, it becomes not just an issue of gun regulation, but also of addressing the impact on those who have been traumatized by such violence (Finkelhor et al., 2009).

Although mental health problems are part of the debate about gun regulation, the discussion has focused primarily upon the mental health of the perpetrators' of gun crimes. In fact, most people with mental illnesses are not violent and are actually more likely to be victimized than they are to victimize others (Teplin et al, 2005). While much more can be done to address the problems of perpetrators with a mental illness, that conversation alone will not address the problems associated with gun violence. The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) believes it is time to broaden the focus of the gun debate to include the social, emotional, physical, and mental health impact of those traumatized by gun violence, especially children and youth. In their 2002 article "Mitigating the Effects of Gun Violence on Children and Youth," James Garbarino and his colleagues pointed out that "children exposed to gun violence may experience negative short and long-term psychological effects, including anger, withdrawal, posttraumatic stress, and desensitization to violence" (Garbarino et al., 2002). They also indicate that the research shows that "certain children may be at higher risk for negative outcomes if they are exposed to gun violence." The groups they identified "include children injured in gun violence, those who witness violent acts at close proximity, those exposed to high levels of violence in their communities or schools, and those exposed to violent media."

Addressing the social, emotional, and physical well-being and mental health needs of children and youth exposed to gun violence is a complex process that requires proper identification of those exposed. It also requires a sufficient number of providers trained in age-appropriate, evidence-based, and trauma-informed treatments to concurrently understand all of these concerns. In addition, it requires our society to find ways to reduce the actual numbers of children and youth who are initially exposed to gun violence. This is no easy task, given the many settings in our world that contain violent situations or imagery: schools, homes, communities, and the media.

At CWLA's 2013 National Conference, our staff and its Mental Health Advisory Board brought together professionals in the child welfare and mental health fields for a Listening Session on the topic of gun violence . Together, they started a dialogue about the often ignored impact of gun violence on the well-being of children, youth, families, and communities and discussed current efforts to address this issue; they also identified problems encountered in both policy and practice fields, providing suggestions and potential solutions. Influenced by CWLA's National Blueprint for Excellence in Child Welfare and its vision for all children and youth to grow up safely, with loving families and supportive communities, the conversation focused on the shared responsibility of individuals, families, organizations, and communities for ensuring the safety and well-being of children and youth. Specifically, participants focused on the culture of violence and fear in many of the communities they serve, the difficulties of combating gun use and violence, the need for community development that is focused on reducing violence, the impact on the children and youth exposed to violence, and what is needed to address the mental health needs of those exposed to gun violence.

CWLA's National Blueprint voices the need to protect the fundamental rights of children and emphasizes the obligation that all individuals have in ensuring a safe and supportive environment for children and youth. In line with the National Blueprint, participants at our 2013 conference discussed the ways that service providers and communities were working to protect the rights of children in relationship to gun legislation. They also pointed out the necessity of addressing gun regulation and violence at the national level, fighting for legislative protections for children and youth.

Many participants voiced frustration with the role guns currently have in American society and their frequent glorification in the media. They pointed out that gun ownership is seen as a key American value, and that many citizens feel entitled to gun ownership and dislike interventions that limit their access. Unfortunately, gun ownership is often associated with the devastating violence that takes place in communities around the country-especially those in which there is a high poverty rate, which can increase the difficulty of preventing gun-based crime. Participants identified that frequent media portrayal of guns glorifies their use and promotes using gun violence as an acceptable means of conflict resolution. They pointed out that the media fails to provide the counter- message that guns are dangerous, should be stored properly, and are not to be used for conflict resolution.

Given the current climate citing personal liberties vis-a-vis the United States Constitution, participants recognized that changing American values regarding gun ownership is an unrealistic goal. They agreed that the focus should be on providing gun education and gun safety training to gun owners and non-owners alike. In addition, communities should have access to accurate information regarding the realities of gun use, such as the annual number of gun homicides and the number of children killed by guns. They suggested that efforts must be made to counter the glorified image portrayed in the media by teaching proper gun use, illuminating the dangers guns pose to children and youth, and explaining alternatives to gun ownership for ensuring personal and home safety.

Conference participants also voiced concerns about the pervasive culture of fear and violence that exists in many of the commu- nities they serve. At the community level, participants observed that guns are often used in response to fear. They pointed out that children and youth living in violent neighborhoods feel at risk; without nonviolent conflict-resolution skills, they too readily depend on guns to solve problems. Garbarino and his colleagues, likewise, stated that "exposure to gun violence also can desensitize youth to the effects of violence and increase the likelihood that they will use violence as a means of resolving problems or expressing emotions." Often, it is only through carrying and using weapons that these youth feel safe, secure, and protected. But despite gun ownership, many children and youth remain unprotected from the violence within their communities.

Participants noted that fighting a community's culture is an uphill battle that is netting few positive results. All agreed that when communities, families, children, and youth are empowered to work together and challenge negative values, they can begin to change the culture of violence and reduce community-wide fear. While not a quick process, is essential to encourage communities to take ownership of the safety and well-being of all children, youth, and families. Consistent with the standards in CWLA's National Blueprint, conference participants further suggested working one-on-one with families, children, and youth to help them build their protective factors, develop resiliency, regulate their emotions, strengthen coping strategies, and transform negative life views into ones of hope for a better future. There was also widespread agreement about the importance of teaching parents how to model nonviolent behaviors for children and educating them on positive methods of discouraging violent alternatives.

In addition to shifting community acceptance of violence at a micro level by working with families, children, and youth directly, participants suggested that child welfare and mental health agencies must also encourage neighborhood residents to become connected to one another and oppose violence at the macro level-i.e., within the greater community. Agency leaders and those who provide services can encourage these changes by nurturing residents' social connections and fostering strong social networks within the community. Once united with the larger community, they will be in a position to more easily influence the needed systematic changes to norms and values.

The consequences of exposure to violence on child development are very real. CWLA's National Blueprint points out that children and youth exposed to chronic trauma can experience inhibited brain development, producing a lasting impact on life outcomes. Likely a result of such exposure, participants noted numerous skill deficits among the children and youth they serve who live in neighborhoods that have high rates of poverty and crime. As suggested by the research, many children experience problems with violence and aggression because they lack nonviolent conflict-resolution skills. Much of this violence and aggression is further exacerbated by emotional overload from exposure to violence. Children and youth exposed to violence experience significant stress, and often struggle to identify and regulate their emotions, as a result of developmental impacts from their frequent exposure to trauma. Their emotions are often internalized and can later erupt in aggression and violence.

The Listening Session attendees also acknowledged that these skill deficits can be the result of children and youth learning behavior through observing and mimicking the actions of those around them. When adults exhibit aggressive and violent behavior, such behavior is often interpreted as appropriate and acceptable. A cycle of violence starts when children and youth observe and embrace negative adult behaviors and, eventually, model such interactions with their own children. With much at stake, a laundry list of strategies and supports was offered to address the impact on child development and reduce the negative impact of exposure to violence. Participants lauded the importance of early, family-level prevention, suggesting that parents must be assisted in accessing the social services necessary to strengthen protective factors, build resiliency, help their children regulate their emotions, develop coping skills, and provide physical and psychological safety.

Participants also identified numerous skills that must be taught directly to children and youth affected by violence to reduce the impact of traumatic stress, including conflict-resolution skills that demonstrate simple problem-solving techniques that are nonviolent and/or force-aversive. In addition to developing communication skills, children and youth need to be taught to identify and regulate their emotions; once they better understand their emotions and how they affect their behavior, they can learn how to appropriately respond to their feelings in ways that are not harmful to themselves or others.

The Listening Session attendees recognized that until child and youth exposure to violence is eliminated, childhood mental health problems will likely continue to grow. The group noted that they are witnessing dramatic growth in the number of children and youth with mental health problems, and that service providers must actively work to educate the public on childhood mental illness. Mental illness continues to be stigmatized, and public hesitancy to discuss the matter is detrimental to children and youth who are impacted by mental health problems. It was further noted that many parents, teachers, and workers are often uneducated regarding mental health conditions and, as a result, fail to identify early signs of mental illness, delaying child and youth access to treatment. It was pointed out that even once treatment is received and a diagnosis is given, many adults lack knowledge about specific mental illnesses and are unsure of how to interact with children and youth with a mental health problem. Without proper education, parents, teachers, and other well- meaning figures may unknowingly exacerbate a child or youth's mental health problems.

In addition to reducing risk factors and developing protective factors and resiliency among youth currently suffering from mental health problems, professionals agreed that communities must also help children and youth at-risk of mental health problems develop protective factors to shield them from the negative mental health outcomes that frequently result from exposure to traumatic life events.

Preventing childhood exposure to violence and mitigating the impact of previous exposure is too large a job for any one group or organization. Child welfare, prevention, and mental health agencies cannot tackle this problem alone. Agencies must embrace the message of CWLA's National Blueprint and encourage communities to take responsibility for the well-being of children and youth. Combating the negative impact of violence on children and youth requires the collaboration of teachers, principals, social workers, police officers, doctors, parents, friends, and more. Each person has a role to play, be it screening for exposure to violence, mitigating the impact of violence through emotional support, or preventing violence through community activism and policy initiatives. Only when all facets of society recognize the true negative impact that exposure to violence has on the well-being of children, youth, families, and communities, and actively work to address this problem, will substantive change take place.

While it will take collaboration between various agencies and specific communities for a significant drop in child and youth exposure to violence to occur, many professionals are actively fighting this battle. Doctors around the country are talking to parents of young children about gun safety and protecting their children from harm. Teachers, principals, and school administrators are actively working with students, reinforcing pro-social behaviors and teaching conflict-resolution skills. Religious figures of all faiths are teaching children and youth about loving themselves, others, and their communities, and about how to be morally centered people. Social workers are educating parents on positive childrearing to reduce exposure to domestic violence and other home-based traumas. Lobbyists and politicians are fighting for legislation that increases access to mental health services and limits public access to guns.

All of these professionals, and many more, are actively working to reduce violence and improve the well-being of children and youth across the country. Individually, they make small but meaningful contributions to the effort, but together, as a united front, these individuals and agencies can make a significant impact in the lives of children and youth exposed to violence in their homes, at their schools, and in their communities. Recent incidents like the Fort Hood shooting once again raise the issue of gun violence. Although this happened on a military base, children, youth, families, and the surrounding communities have all been impacted. While the issue of gun violence seems stalled in this current Congress, it continues to be a central concern for all of us.

CWLA's Listening Session helped begin the dialogue on current efforts to prevent child and youth exposure to violence and mitigate the impact of previous exposure. Now is the time for all to come together and finish this discussion. n

Julie Collins is CWLA's Director of Standards for Practice Excellence. Emily Swoveland served as an intern at CWLA in 2013. The authors offer special thanks to Linda Spears and Andrea Bartolo.
References
Garbarino, J., Bradshaw, C.P., & Vorrasi, J.A. (2002). Mitigating the Effects of Gun Violence on Children and Youth. The Future of Children, 12(2), 73-87. Retrieved from https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/12_02_05.pdf.

Finkelhor, D., et al. (2009). Children's Exposure to Violence: A Comprehensive National Survey. Juvenile Justice Bulletin, October 2009. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/227744.pdf.

Teplin, L., et al. (2005). Crime Victimization in Adults With Severe Mental Illness: Comparison With the National Crime Victimization Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 911-921.

To comment on this article, e-mail voice@cwla.org.

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