This video story was reported and produced by Emmanuel Maduneme.
More than 20 Black Americans die every day from guns, according to Everytown Research. Patricia Brown’s son, Devanté Brown, was one of the lives taken by this daily occurrence.
“It’s hard how that happened,” Brown said. “Now I have to go and visit a grave where my child is buried.”
Devonté Brown was 27 when he was gunned down at the Tampa Park Apartments near downtown in March 2020.
Even after a year has passed, the heartache is still fresh for his mother.
“By the time I got to the hospital, my baby was already gone,” she recalls. “He didn’t have a chance, the bullet that hit him. It went through his back and straight to his heart and blew his heart out.”
It is, unfortunately, violence that hits the Black community harder than most.
Black Americans make up more than half of gun related killings in the United States. That’s 10 times the number of white Americans. According to Gun Violence Archives, there have been over 5,000 gun deaths this year alone.
According to Everytown Research, the lack of funding in certain neighborhoods and cities escalates gun homicides, assaults, and police shootings in these areas. The little to no support for these areas intensifies the country’s long-standing racial injustice.
With the rise in gun violence it is essential to be informed on solutions that can lower the risk of being harmed by firearms. Everytown Research listed four solutions to this ongoing issue including violence intervention programs, Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Assistance Funding, repealing Stand Your Ground laws, and helping to prevent gun trafficking.
She founded Rise Up For Peace to build “bridges of compassion by embracing peaceful practices, reintroducing a community of brotherly and sisterly love as a sense of oneness, ‘what impacts you, impacts all.'” For Brown, her mission now is to seek justice for her son and more.
“Not only just for my son but for other ones, too,” she said “I’m doing it for other parents, too. If we could just get one, I feel like I’ve succeeded.”
Wayne Garcia contributed to this story.
