gun violence

Under bright, colorful lights, to the beat of music, high schoolers across Boston gathered to kick off a new opportunity to make their voices heard.

On a Sunday evening in late February 2012, I gathered around the TV with my family in Los Angeles to watch the NBA All-Star Game. In Sanford, Florida, a continent away, a teenage boy named Trayvon Martin was also getting ready to watch the game, and like most 17-year-olds, he wanted some snacks for the matchup. He put on a hoodie and headed to the convenience store for a pack of Skittles and a can of Arizona Iced Tea

The brazen murder last week of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk produced sympathy for the Minnesota-based executive and his family, elicited the usual concerns about gun violence and reinforced public fears about urban crime.

As his term nears its end, President Biden signed new executive orders last week on ghost guns, school drills and other efforts to reduce gun violence throughout the country.

When the Gun Violence Memorial Project was launched in 2019, there were an average of 700 gun-related deaths every week in the United States. In 2024, the weekly average has been 840. The need for a space of collective mourning, remembrance and awareness is greater than ever.

As an emergency physician at Boston Medical Center in the early 2000s, Dr. Thea James saw Black and brown patients come into the emergency department forgotten by the system.

The opening scene in “Senseless Smoke – Live,” a theatrical production based on a film of the same name, brings to life the fears and uncertainties of living in a culture of gangs and guns. As well as efforts to overcome the pathologies of that life.

In their first meeting of 2023, Boston City Council members offered up what amounts to at least a partial agenda for the new year.

Gun violence is as American as apple pie. Urban citizens are apprehensive about safety in large cities. As expected, racist Republicans are quick to insist that the shootings are a consequence of large Black populations in major cities. By generating white fear, they hope to diminish the impact of the Black vote, which is usually predominantly Democratic.

In the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York, hundreds gathered at Christopher Columbus Park in Boston’s North End to demand new gun safety policies Saturday.

A bi-partisan group of 20 U.S. Senators Sunday announced an outline for gun safety reform, signaling a step forward in the effort to address recent back-to-back mass shootings while also balancing second amendment rights.