In response to the June 6 mass shooting prior to Richmond’s high school graduation that left two people dead and several others injured, a group of protesters held an anti-gun violence rally at the steps of the state capitol, Wednesday, June 7, 2023. (Photo by Samantha Willis/The Virginia Mercury)
New qualitative research of professors and law students at the University of Virginia examines the factors contributing to gun violence among adolescent people in Virginia, as well as solutions at the state and local levels.
“We shouldn’t be afraid to walk around our own city without a gun,” said a 25-year-old Charlottesville resident interviewed for the study released Thursday.
The person was one of nearly 60 minors and adults from across the state that researchers interviewed to get information about what inspires people to carry guns and what might instead make their communities feel safer.
The study builds on other studies, such as one conducted in 2024 test revealed that teens exposed to neighborhood gun violence were more likely to start carrying their own guns. For the UVA study, the authors examined various heated spots across the state where homicide rates were higher.
Lynchburg-area resident James Watkins, a longtime specialist in violence reduction and youth outreach strategies, interviewed youth as part of the qualitative portion of the study and is one of the authors.
At times during his childhood, Watkins lived in highly violent areas before finding a sense of community and earning a scholarship to the Virginia Military Institute, where he eventually earned a degree in psychology. He believes his mentorship and his own experiences helped raise the comfort of the interviewees, whose identities were kept anonymous in the report.
As adolescent people opened up and shared their experiences with him, Watkins said his conclusion was that adults should listen to the perspectives of minors when it comes to gun violence – from causes to involvement to why someone might own a gun.
“If you don’t feel comfortable going to law enforcement or an adult (to solve a problem), a child will reach for a gun because it’s readily available,” Watkins said. “They want to pick up a gun to protect themselves.”
The study shows what works and suggests further steps
The study makes several recommendations for actions state and local governments can take to aid reduce violence.
As interviewees shared their observations about living in areas where violence is common, they also shared how they believed police could listen to and engage with communities in a more meaningful way. A resident of the Hampton area suggested that officers seek aid from local residents to take specific actions in hotspot areas.
In addition to law enforcement, the report also noted cases of civilian intervention to prevent conflicts from escalating, leading to the police being called in the first place.
The study’s authors also suggest that local governments enter into memorandums of understanding with “organizations employing people with experience.”
One such organization is Central Virginia Violence Interrupters, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit. The group, founded by people with criminal records, seeks to aid reduce violence and prevent crime through conflict de-escalation and de-escalation tactics.
The idea is that people who have experience serving time for crimes are well suited for intervention to aid people who are on the brink. In recent years, this group of former volunteers have been supported to treat their work as part-time, as they devote long hours to putting themselves in risky situations for the benefit of the entire community.
The City Council has allocated funds to the organization and received federal grants in recent years, but that number has dropped this year as President Donald Trump’s administration has canceled grants or awarded them in other areas of the country. Additionally, Charlottesville allocated a smaller budget for the group. Researchers suggest that local communities should continue to support groups such as Violence Interrupters.
“When we traditionally talk about safety, we think about potential victims. But we want potential criminals to feel safe too. This will reduce the likelihood that they will behave in a way that we all regret and that they will regret.” said Andrew Block, one of the report’s authors and director of UVa’s State and Local Government Law Clinic.
Research also points to successful state and local efforts that can be continued. For example, Hampton, Newport News and Norfolk have established interagency steering committees that share data on areas of their cities where gun violence occurs and where intervention measures and public safety can be prioritized.
To aid with the research, an organization called the Virginia First Cities Coalition hosted a virtual, in-person conference in September with law enforcement leaders and violence interruption groups to share insights.
“Everyone has to play a role,” said Kelly Harris-Braxton, director of Virginia First Cities. “We’re all in this together.”
Law enforcement leaders discussed how they began to devote “the same level of investigative resources to nonfatal shootings as to homicides.” The report found that this approach led to faster arrests and prevented retaliatory violence, and provided another recommendation for Virginia law enforcement to implement.
Harris-Braxton said it was “refreshing” to see how passionate police chiefs at the conference were about curbing violence.
Similarly, outgoing Attorney General Jason Miyares’ Virginia ceasefire program was hailed as a success. The program, which invests in gang prevention and targets repeat offenders, also distributed grant funds to violence intervention and youth mentoring groups across the state.
Celebrating the program’s work last year with Virginia Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, Miyares said “you can’t just get away” from a violent crime.
Continued funding for violence intervention programs and groups is the most critical recommendation from the UVA study for state government. The authors also suggest expanding funding where possible and ensuring its flexibility as municipalities utilize the subsidies.
The authors also noted that the efforts of Democrat Del. Cia Price, Newport News’s bill to create the Virginia Firearms Intervention and Prevention Center had previously passed the Legislature but was blocked by a veto by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. With Democratic Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger set to take over the state next year, she could potentially sign the bill into law.
Scientists say state gun safety laws could be tightened, and some of them have successful over the years and others that have occurred vetoed.
At the local level, the authors noted some holistic approaches that could aid reduce gun violence in hotspots, such as investing in community centers and empowering school districts to address absenteeism.
Both Harris-Braxton and Watkins emphasized that in-school and after-school programs are places where minors can find mentoring and friendship.
“Some kids don’t have a stable family,” Watkins said. “There’s a void, so they look for gangs to belong to, but then they get sucked into this lifestyle.”
When talking about the idea of community centers in an interview for the study, a adolescent adult from Richmond said that adolescent people “look at their surroundings” and if they see violence and crime, they are more likely to get involved. They argue that a third space that allows connection with others and supportive environments can be nurturing.
“You don’t have to fall into this cycle where you commit crimes, end up in prison cells, can’t find a job, and then go back to crime and end up in prison,” they said.
Primarily examining ways to prevent gun violence and how to deal with it when it occurs, Block explained that state and local efforts can provide synergy and progress.
“If we think about this massive problem of youth gun violence at a more local and almost micro level, it becomes a much more solvable problem,” Block said.
This story was originally produced by Virginia Mercurywhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes Pennsylvania Capital-Star, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
