We are tired of going to funerals and watching people die.
This was, perhaps, the most important part of our testimony at a special hearing of the Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) regarding the establishment, by ordinance, of an Office of Gun Violence Reduction in Chicago. This hearing was the first-ever special session of the CCPSA; it was created in response to more than 2,000 petitions collected from houses of worship that demanded a public convening to discuss this needed response to our city’s most notorious problem.
The good news about the Aug. 14 CCPSA hearing is that it ended with two key voices supporting the Office of Gun Violence Reduction: former police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and CCPSA President Anthony Driver.
The good news is that we introduced the idea for an Office of Gun Violence Reduction to Rahm Emanuel’s administration, which created a special task force on the matter. Then we worked with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who created a blueprint for the office.
The bad news is that this ordinance has never been brought up for a City Council vote.
The encouraging news is that there is reason for hope this fall at City Hall that the ordinance, and the public health approach it brings to reducing gun violence, will finally receive serious attention from our elected officials. Mayor Brandon Johnson is in a position to lead the way.
The Office of Gun Violence Reduction would employ a public health approach to tackling gun violence as a disease. The surgeon general has reported that the No. 1 killer of youths in America is gun violence. That is why our nation and our state have established offices that can provide accountability and transcend administrations to engage in the work of preventing gun violence. Our proposed city ordinance is in line with the White House policy, Illinois statute, academic data and all the cities that have built offices to prevent gun violence. This office would not be anything radically new. It has been tested, implemented and championed everywhere — except in Chicago, which is infamous in our nation for gun violence.
Richmond, California, built such an office 20 years ago and saw dramatic drops in gun violence over the years. Baltimore, New York, Miami, Cleveland, Milwaukee and many other cities have followed suit and built their own offices, and they are seeing drops in gun violence. According to gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, such a policy has been adopted by 11 states. The Council on Criminal Justice advocates for the Office of Gun Violence Reduction approach; so, too, does the public policy research group Center for American Progress.
Most importantly, our state and our nation believe that creating offices of gun violence prevention are the best ways to pool expertise and resources, develop holistic strategies, implement advances on a wide range of fronts and ensure accountability. In September, President Joe Biden established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to implement and expand upon key executive and legislative action to save lives, including coordination with states and cities.
Our state also has built such a centralized office. The mission of the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention, established as part of the Reimagine Public Safety Act in 2021, is “to address the statewide public health emergency that is firearm violence.” The act calls for a comprehensive approach to reducing firearm violence through community investments to address root causes and provide those most at-risk with access to evidence-based and trauma-informed services.
Johnson, during his campaign, endorsed creating an Office of Gun Violence Reduction by ordinance. And while he has not yet worked in any way on establishing such an office, his administration is showing encouraging signs. Earlier this month, the mayor praised Biden for creating the White House Office on Gun Violence Reduction; he said the president “understands that our communities have a right to live in safety and not in fear.” Johnson then doubled down on this support, applauding Vice President Kamala Harris’ oversight of this national office, which the mayor called “critical for our transformation.”
The shift in Johnson’s public tone and his willingness to set a meeting with the faith community to discuss the ordinance are encouraging signs of progress to permanently establish Chicago’s office. With growing public support, the advocacy of practitioners and the introduction of the ordinance at City Hall, only one question remains. It is the question posed by Dan Hinkel of Injustice Watch at the CCPSA’s special meeting:
“The fundamental question is can Chicago implement the best practices that have been operating all across the nation?”
We hope the answer, finally, is: Yes. We hope that, in place of officiating at way too many funerals for victims of gun violence, we can move to partnering with public officials as they put Chicago, as a whole city, on this path of public health and public healing.
Chicago faith leaders Rabbi Seth Limmer, the Rev. Otis Moss III, the Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain and the Rev. Michael Pfleger joined the Tribune’s opinion section in summer 2022 for a series of columns on potential solutions to Chicago’s chronic gun violence problem. The column continues on an occasional basis.
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