Experts across the medical field and policymakers gathered earlier this week to discuss gun violence prevention efforts in Black communities across the nation. The panel, hosted by the National Medical Association (NMA) at its 212th Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly in New Orleans, explored the concerns surrounding young people affected by gun violence and alternative solutions to help communities affected.
Jada Watts is a member of the Student National Medical Association and member of the Howard University Taskforce at Howard University Hospital.
"If you do not know somebody that has been shot, then you are privileged," said Jada Watts, of the Student National Medical Association and member of the Howard University Taskforce at Howard University Hospital. "Before I lost my brother, I always would see these things in the news, and I was like, 'wow, that is so sad,' and I would go on about my day. I would carry on. But, until this happened to me, that's when I started to become an advocate."
The panel discussion titled, "Violence in America, Vol. 2: Implementing Policies and a Time for Action," explored the growing rates of gun violence in Black communities, particularly in major urban areas across the nation.
Dr. Kenneth Wilson, trauma medical director at the University of Chicago, noted that gun violence among children in Chicago has increased significantly in recent years, with the number of youngsters admitted to the children's hospital at the University of Chicago for bullet penetrating trauma, had increased thrice since he started there in 2016. He said the national average for penetrating bullet trauma is generally 12% and in the single digits when it comes to children, yet in the south side of Chicago, it is 19%.
Gun prevention, Wilson says, is one of the best ways for children to have a future. He currently facilitates workshops focused on trauma and gun prevention and said that more needs to be done to educate young people about the dangers of firearms.
According to the Pew Research Center, gun deaths among U.S. children rose 50% between 2019 and 2021. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children, killing about 4,357 children ages 1-19 in 2020. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the U.S. is the only country among its peers that has seen a substantial increase in the rate of child firearm deaths at about 42% in the last two decades.
Black Americans, in particular, are disproportionately impacted by gun violence, according to Everytown Research and Policy. Black people, for example, experience 12 times the gun homicides, 18 times the gun assault injuries, and nearly three times the fatal police shootings of white Americans. 
Dr. Kenneth Wilson is a trauma medical director at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Abdullah Hasan Pratt, an assistant professor, and emergency medical physician at the University of Chicago, said that many residents in Chicago have demanded assistance on how best to address the growing problem. As a result, he said that he began facilitating workshops and offering other educational programs alongside Wilson. He said that while he and his colleagues were engaged in community outreach about healthy eating, young people would ask for lessons on what they should do if they were shot or saw someone else injured by a bullet.
"What we ended up finding is that those same students had an interest in health careers," said Pratt. " Teaching them how to deal with a gunshot wound gave them this empowerment, this inertia that they said, 'if I could do that, well, maybe I could be one of those people in the ambulance. So maybe I can be a nurse. My aunt's a nurse. What do I have to do to become a nurse? Because I really don't want to see people suffer.'"
Veronica Fernandez-Alvarado can be reached at [email protected]
