Mollie Freebairn
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
Rising gun violence on our city streets leaves in its wake the indescribable loss of loved ones for too many Missourians, that can never be healed. Preventing further loss, and restoring broken neighborhoods to provide the common necessities of life we all share, is the goal that can be achieved, for Missouri's future well-being. The special session on violent crime convened by Gov. Mike Parson seeks measures to address this tragic issue, taking the lives of so many Missourians.
Shooting maps reveal the neighborhoods and blocks where shootings cluster, adjacent to those that are largely free from violence. (Search "St. Louis shooting map") The vast majority of shootings in the St. Louis metro area are concentrated in North St. Louis City. The strip of South St. Louis City along the riverfront is stricken with the next highest incidence of shootings/homicides. Most of the rest of St. Louis' metro area contains few or no incidents of violence.
Similarly, as shown in Kansas City and Missouri-wide shooting maps, areas hard hit by gun violence overlap those most deeply impacted by economic hardship, poor health, struggling schools, derelict housing, people lacking better options than utterly hopeless, desperate measures. The Missouri-wide map also makes clear that gun violence is not limited to cities. Incidents dot the landscape of rural America, each marking a small town stricken by the loss of once-thriving economies and family farms, replaced by job loss, poverty, hunger, desperation, and gunfire.
Now these same areas are being hit the hardest by the coronavirus, for all the same reasons - under-served, disadvantaged people, with few or no resources or reserves, stretched to their limits. Dr. Fauci notes that communities of color are more likely to be in essential jobs, that they cannot do via teleworking at home. Or they may have no job, no home, exposed to outdoor or employment situations with no control over physical distancing.
People of color have disproportionately greater incidents of the underlying conditions that lead to more serious disease, hospitalization and death - lacking access to nutritious food and health care. These are the things that we've got to change. If there's one silver lining in this pandemic, it is to focus with a laser beam on the disparities that we've got to change, at the most basic, fundamental level.