THE GUN PROBLEM IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY

WHY?

The victims and people of direct impact to gun violence are the perspectives that are amplified, yet aren’t taken into consideration by the government. However, the black community’s gun violence problem is rooted deeper than what lies on the surface. Gun-related murders have reached a 20 year high in Chicago, one of the places most impacted by the gun epidemic. The relationship between Chicago and its gun problem begins with the historic segregation underlying in the city. Black citizens were put into segregated sections without any structure or guidance for success and were demoralized as a whole. With constant neglect from the government, the communities systems became dysfunctional, and gangs and gang-related violence submerged. An overlapping problem in the community is that the police and the justice system isn’t trusted. When someone is shot, people don’t go to the police, and many rather seek revenge, which leads to a cyclical process of gun-related deaths.