Conference Unveils Wall of 3,094 Victims of Gun Violence in Cities

By Ed Somers

Continuing its effort to shed light on the violence caused by guns, on January 27 The U.S. Conference of Mayors unveiled a new wall which lists the names of over 3,000 victims of gun violence in 100 cities since the tragic shooting at Columbine High School.

The names on the wall come from a second survey conducted by the Conference entitled, “The Death Toll Since Columbine: Victims of Gun Violence in Cities.” The first survey was released by the Conference on Gun Safety Day: September 9, 1999.

As Conference President Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb stated in opening the press conference unveiling the wall, “Many observers – in public life, in the media, in homes throughout the nation – felt that Columbine was a defining moment, an incident that finally would prompt the U.S. Congress to act on the free flow of deadly weapons in American society. But this has not happened.”

Mayors joining Mayor Webb in the press conference were Advisory Board Chair Marc H. Morial of New Orleans, Gun Task Force Co-Chair Joseph P. Ganim of Bridgeport, Scott King of Gary, James Garner of Hempstead and Carty Finkbeiner of Toledo.

As the survey points out, in cities throughout the nation, the gun violence death toll – month by month, day by day – continues to rise. Many of the shootings since April 20 have been highly visible:

• In May, six high school students were wounded by a student in Conyers, Georgia.

• In June, a firing on a clinic left two dead and four wounded in Southfield, Michigan.

• In July, a racist rampage left two dead and nine wounded in Illinois and Indiana, and nine were killed and 13 wounded by a day trader in Atlanta.

• In August, a firing on the Jewish Community Center left five wounded, and an Asian postman was killed by the same assailant in Los Angeles.

• In September, a firing in a church left seven dead and seven wounded in Fort Worth.

• In October, an ambush killed three police officers in Pleasanton, Texas.

• In November, seven employees were killed at a Xerox office building in Honolulu.

• In December, five young children were killed by a father in Sacramento.

In reflecting on these incidents, Webb said, “While these and many more stories like them were appearing in the national news, accounts of thousands of other gun deaths were not. The day-to-day carnage in our cities has not been a national news story: With few exceptions, the shooting of a father or mother, son or daughter in any one of our cities generally goes unnoticed outside that city.”

“We are here today to say that the cumulative effect of all the shootings of all the fathers and mothers, sons and daughters should not go unnoticed: Beyond the personal tragedy that each shooting represents, when you put them all together, they add up to a national disaster of major proportions,” Mayor Webb added.

“In putting the wall together, the Conference found that, in 11 of the cities, no gun deaths occurred – and that was very good news. But for the other 89 cities, the wall tells a tragic story,” Webb said.

The survey found that:

• In the eight months that have passed since Columbine, not a single day was free of firearms deaths;

• In the 100 cities alone, more than 3,000 people died of gun violence;

• Victims of gun violence are as young as two years, as old as 96;

• One in 12 of these victims is a juvenile, 17 years of age or younger; and

• One in three of these victims is a young adult, between the ages of 18 and 25.

Mayor Webb said, “Our hope is that the tragic message of this wall – and of the report containing the names and ages and stories of these victims that we are releasing today – will not be missed on Capitol Hill now that Congress has returned. To us, the message of the wall and the report is simple and clear: It is time for Congress to do its part in protecting America’s children, to do its part in making cities safer for all residents.”

Last year, the Senate passed gun safety measures that would close existing legal loopholes and offer greater protections for children. Mayors – both Democrats and Republicans – appealed to the House to accept these measures in its conference with the Senate. However, Congress adjourned in November having taken no action on gun safety.

The nation’s mayors and police chiefs have called on Congress to pass a final bill that includes:

• a law that closes the gun show loophole by requiring background checks on all sales;

• a law banning the importation of large capacity ammunition clips;

• a law requiring child safety locks for every handgun sold in the U.S.;

• a law establishing a minimum mandatory sentence of three years for those who knowingly transfer a firearm to a minor with knowledge that it will be used in the course of a violent crime or a drug-trafficking crime;

• a law banning juvenile possession of semi-automatic assault weapons; and

• a law establishing a lifetime ban on gun ownership for anyone convicted of a violent crime while a juvenile.