Portsmouth, Virginia (WAVY) — According to the Swiss-based Small Arms Research, There are nearly 400 million guns in circulation in the United States. Many gun-related crimes are often caught on mobile phones and surveillance cameras.
That was the case in September at a house party on Quilliam Avenue in Norfolk. The camera caught the roar of the barrage of gunfire It contained at least one rifle. According to his death certificate, a rifle was used to kill his 24-year-old Zabre Miller.
A few months later, on Miller’s 25th birthday, his mother, Alkibet Cooper, reflected on the Killam Avenue riot that killed her son and a student at Norfolk State University.
“I can’t believe kids are walking around with rifles. I don’t know what to think, but I know something needs to change,” Cooper said.
Last year saw a spate of shootings across the Commonwealth. In March 2022, Virginia Pilot reporter Sierra Jenkins and two others were shot dead. outside the norfolk bar Four people were murdered in Portsmouth’s Maple Avenue home in June, 3 University of Virginia football players was shot on a bus in early November, Six Walmart employees were killed by armed co-workers at a Walmart store before Thanksgiving at Chesapeake.
Robert Wood Johnson FoundationThe group that underwrote , smoking, obesity, and road deaths is now tackling gun violence. I am the chairman of this foundation.
“We recognize that if we treat it as a public health problem in the same way that we treat car accidents, we can reduce gun mortality without depriving law-abiding citizens of their right to hunt with guns. It’s something that some people want to do,” Besser said in a recent Zoom interview.
according to gun violence archives, So far this year, nearly 44,000 people have died from gun violence. It is due to all causes.
After 21 people, including 19 children, died at a school in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 died in a racist attack in Buffalo, New York, President Joe Biden signed into law a new gun control law. enacted the law. It was the first such law in 30 years.
“I think a lot can be done to reduce the impact of gun violence when you look at the policies that the vast majority of people in our country support. Put in place safer policies to protect children and protect adults from this level of gun violence and gun deaths,” Besser said.