[Baltimore Sun] Preventing another Joppatowne: Start by rejecting gun violence as ‘fact of life’ | STAFF COMMENTARY
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Until last week, Joppatowne High School wasn’t especially well known outside Harford County. It is small, with fewer than 900 students, and serves a working-class, majority-minority community. Nearly three-quarters of students there are classified as economically disadvantaged. The most recent newsletter sent home by school administrators featured a warning to follow the county’s restrictions on student cellphones in school (they have to be deactivated during instruction time). But all that changed with the death of Warren Curtis Grant, the 15-year-old Joppatowne student fatally shot at the school last Friday.
Today, the school is closed and will remain so until Thursday. Students, teachers, administrators, parents and others in the community are grieving the terrible loss of a life cut short. Many are wondering how a fight between Grant and 16-year-old fellow student Jaylen Rushawn Prince in a first-floor bathroom could result in such tragedy. The accused allegedly pulled out a handgun he had brought to school and shot Grant in the chest. Prince is now charged as an adult with murder and assault.
There are the mass shootings where a disturbed young person brings an AR-15-style assault rifle to school, as took place at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia last Wednesday, or perhaps when someone shoots randomly into vehicles on a highway, as happened last Saturday on Interstate 75 in Kentucky. And that’s just the first week of September. But Joppatowne would seem to more neatly fit the kind of violence that has been more typical in Maryland and elsewhere across the country: Young people in conflict with easy access to firearms.
Much of Harford County remains in mourning today. That’s entirely appropriate. First, because it demonstrates that we still place a high value on the victim’s life, but also because it says we do not accept gun violence as a “fact of life.” Yet those were the words chosen by U.S. Sen. JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, to describe school shootings just one day after what happened in Georgia. Specifically, Vance said he didn’t like these attacks but recognized them as a “fact of life.” And what is his answer for preventing more of them? To bolster school security with metal detectors and the like. Such devices can surely help, but what happens when the shootings move elsewhere?
Vice President Kamala Harris seems to get that. That she’s not under the thumb of the National Rifle Association undoubtedly proves helpful, and she has vowed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Whether she can succeed is another matter, of course, given the gridlock in Congress and the NRA’s political clout. Still, it’s encouraging to hear the career prosecutor intends to try. As we’ve observed before, gun violence must be treated like any broad public health crisis — with an “all-in” strategy that addresses not just the proliferation of weaponry or failure on the part of many states to pass sufficient gun safety laws but also community violence intervention.
In Baltimore, programs like Safe Streets seek to help resolve disputes through conflict mediation and resolution, often in a peer-to-peer format. What if, instead of a gun, a young person had the tools to settle differences by talking through them, preferably with someone who understands their circumstances? If there’s one thing that Baltimore has learned, it’s that today’s survivor of gun violence will often prove tomorrow’s shooter. Interrupt that cycle, and you don’t just have fewer guns on the streets; you may end up with fewer people primed to use them. It’s a major reason why Baltimore has recently seen a double-digit reduction in shootings — including a 36% drop in homicides and a 30% drop in non-fatal incidents as of July.
So let today be a day of mourning in Harford County, but next week usher in a new era of problem-solving. Nobody has to accept school shootings as a fact of life, not in Joppatowne, not in Baltimore and not anywhere in this country. But we won’t solve this public health crisis by deciding that certain strategies — like firearm removal laws that take away guns from individuals shown to be a threat to themselves or others — are off-limits because they make gun advocates squirm. The same goes for community violence intervention strategies like Safe Streets that “lock them up” conservatives can’t seem to wrap their heads around.
The truth is we know how to reduce shootings, whether in cities, suburbs or rural enclaves. There is no shortage of research on the topic. The question is: Will we have the leadership and political resolve to take the necessary actions?
Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom.
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