Gun violence is both expensive and a public health emergency. That’s according to Reggie Moore, the Director of Violence Prevention Policy and Engagement for the Medical College of Wisconsin Comprehensive Injury Center in Milwaukee.
Moore gave a presentation to the Gun Violence Prevention Network at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation on Thursday. The audience of about 50 community leaders, law enforcement and elected officials included Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety’s David Boysen and Kalamazoo Vice Mayor Dave Cooney, among others. The group is working on ways to reduce gun crime in the city.
“I think this work is personal for me, as a black man, as someone who has been directly impacted by gun violence, and lost family, and friends to gun violence,” Moore told the audience. “I anticipate that this is personal for all of you.”
Moore advocates for treating gun violence as a public health crisis. He says cities need to invest in gun violence prevention in the same way as they invest in more traditional services.
“Just as critical as trash pickup, as libraries, as policing. Everything that a city invests in, violence prevention has to be seen as just as a critical city service as anything else,” Moore said.
Moore said emergency response centers, like the ones used for COVID, work against gun violence. These centers collect data and enable research to determine how and where to allocate funds and focus efforts.
Moore was part of Milwaukee’s Blueprint for Peace. It’s a community-driven approach to violence, rooted in public health, with the goal of making Milwaukee a safer, more resilient city. The emergency response center approach found most gun violence happened on Friday and Tuesday, which led to informed decisions around allocating staff and services.
Moore said gun violence costs everyone – more than $1600 per Michigan resident per year, according to the group Everytown for Gun Safety. Everytown estimates the total cost of gun deaths and injuries at $16.8 billion each year in the state. Moore pointed to research from The National Institute of Criminal Justice Reform, which breaks the costs down by major cities.
“So, if we can't win the moral argument that no kid in our country should have to be afraid of being shot, or feeling that they have to carry a gun to feel safe, then maybe making a financial argument could work.”
Moore said a three-tiered approach to gun violence is less expensive than the costs associated with shootings. The first tier, prevention, includes things like quality after-school programs. The second tier focuses on intervention for people at risk of violent behavior to head it off before it happens. The third tier provides support services for individuals and families injured or killed by guns.
Moore has been working with the Gun Violence Prevention Network for about a year, and was in Kalamazoo to meet with discussion groups. Jennifer Heymoss works for the Kalamazoo Community Foundation’s Initiatives & Public Policy office that is guiding the work. She called it the “convener” for the gun prevention initiative.
“We've been doing this work in the community, very intentionally trying to come together for a year and a half,” Heymoss told Thursdays gathering. “But many people, and it's a lot of you in this room, have been doing this for your whole life.”