I write this because of an epidemic—an epidemic that has been largely ignored by the public and policy makers until it impacts them personally in their own communities. An epidemic that takes the lives of 96 people a day on average. That epidemic is gun violence.
School shootings have been among the most talked about topics in regards to mass shootings and gun violence. In my lifetime, I have been alive for 309 of those- from 1996-2018. However, we must understand that schools are not the only victims of gun violence. This is an intersectional issue that affects a multitude of people from various walks of life. And depending on who you are, you could be affected more or less.
We turn on our TVs and we see the poster children for gun violence as kids in white suburban neighborhoods. And while mass school shootings do oftentimes occur in predominantly white spaces, we must ask why there isn’t equal outrage for other forms of gun violence. I ask you today to consider gun violence as an intersectional issue. Intersectionality, a term coined by black feminist, Kimberle Crenshaw, attempts to identify how interlocking systems of power impact those who are most marginalized in a society. In the case of gun violence, this looks like so many things.
There are many issues we see every day that we do not associate with gun violence because we separate the identity of the victim from what we perceive as normal. Domestic violence is one of our most least identified gun violence topics. Women are dying at higher rates at the hands of their male partners. Each month, 50 women on average will be shot to death by their lover or an intimate partner. This means that 600 women will die at by the end of 2018 at the hands of gun violence. Six hundred women’s lives will go unheard and unnoticed.
Also, when we talk about gun violence, we fail to consider queer and trans lives, when they are arguably one of the groups most affected by gun violence. Living in the year of 2018, we often forget that even though the years change, social acceptance is not guaranteed. Our LGBT+ lives are the most targeted amongst minority groups. One of our most devastating and deadly mass shootings was at the Pulse nightclub on June 12th, 2016. Between 2014 and 2015, LGBT+ homicides rose by 20 percent. And of LGBT+ homicides reported in 2016, 62 percent were LGBT people of color and 54 of those were transwomen of color. Additionally, LGBT people are also more likely to be shot by a family member or a loved one. Names like 14-year-old Giovanni Melton, who was killed by his father will go unsaid and unheard.
When we talk about gun violence, we also ignore the black lives lost by the corrupt system of policing. We do not see the lives taken as casualties of police with guns, but as criminals whose lives were taken by excessive force. It stands to reason that if we are not seeing these unjust killings of innocent people as an issue, why would we see it as a gun violence issue? We are trained to believe that the police are responsible for their possession of a weapon, rather than seeing it for what it is. Black people are the highest group of people killed by police while unarmed. They are 3 times more likely to be killed than the average white American. These names will be remembered, but as a hashtag disconnected from gun violence.
I would like to leave you with this thought: If you are not standing for all people, then you are not standing at all. If you are standing against gun violence, you are standing as an ally to women, queer and trans folks, black lives, Muslim lives and countless others. Everything that you see and hear here today is real life. Some of you may not be familiar with these experiences, but for some of us these experiences resonate all too well. Regardless of such, being here has declared your need to see change in our communities and in our laws. I ask of you all reading this to remember that this is not just an issue that we are rallying for because of a school. This is an issue that we are rallying for because it can and will affect people like you or me if we do not stand up to the NRA and say enough.
