Panelists at San Diego’s Youth Justice Summit Discuss What the Perfect Gun Policy Looks Like
Last weekend I crashed the Youth Justice Summit 2022 put on by a non-profit called Generation Justice San Diego. Generation Justice SD is a group of student and youth activists organizing for change in the San Diego area. Although their social media presence isn’t robust, their presence in the community is.
I heard about the summit through a partner group, Rise Up San Diego and signed up the day before to attend. It was a free event and lunch was provided, so of course I had to be there. I always attended these types of events as a student or representative, but this time I showed up as an individual eager to learn and understand more about the needs of youth in my community. It was an incredible event. The title of the summit this year was Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Racial Justice in Education. The summit was broken down into sessions with different expert panelists. Every session was rich with information and takeaways for those who attended, but there was one session in particular that I felt needed to be shared with a much larger audience.
Session #3- TRIGGERED: A Conversation on Gun Violence Prevention
-Aeiramique Glass Blake (Instagram: @aeiramique) , Chief Executive Director of Generation Justice (@generationjusticesd), and the facilitator for the discussion
-Jamie Wilson, Community Organizer with SAY San Diego, and Commissioner on the City of San Diego’s Gang Prevention and Intervention
-Reginald Washington, President and CEO of Project A.W.A.R.E Enterprises, Inc.; an organization that aims to educate at-risk youths and prepare them to take responsibility for their thoughts and actions.
-Lonnie and Sandy Phillips, founders of Survivors Empowered, an organization dedicated to their daughter who was killed in the Aurora mass shooting in Colorado. Their organization helping victims of gun violence heal.
-Max Coston, President of the Board of Directors for March for Our Lives San Diego, the local chapter of MFOL, striving to end Gun Violence in all communities through research, policy, action, and community organizing.
-Dave Myers, former law enforcement officer with the San Diego Sherriff’s Department, running for Sherriff himself in the next upcoming election.
As we dove into the different stories and experiences with gun and gang violence, the dialogue between panelists began to paint a picture of all the pieces that make up gun reform; racial justice, gang involvement, restorative interventions, survivor and victim services, gun laws, policy, and law enforcement. Each person on the panel represented one of the intersectional aspects that contribute to the issue on gun violence in America.
During the open forum I asked this question to all the panelists:
If we, as the United States, were to start fresh in creating a gun policy, what would you include in it?
1.Eliminate gang enhancements: Commissioner Jamie Wilson shared that these gang enhancements should not be used when determining the outcome of anyone's criminal sentence, especially minors. Currently, gang enhancements are used as a punitive response to deter youth from committing crimes, but the unintentional outcomes are creating big issues for youth that get caught up in the criminal justice system. Commissioner Wilson mentions that “we have opportunities to respond productively” to youth who are caught breaking the law. To prevent further gun and gang violence with youth, we need to use resources and services, rather than charges and jail time.
2.Require Trauma-Informed Care: Reginald Washington speaks on this wherever and whenever he gets the opportunities to share in public settings. He and Jamie Wilson both shared that many of the youth and young people who get caught up in the cross fire of gun violence will need countless resources to deal with the trauma of what they witness (ie. Friends getting shot, bodies in the street, etc). Washington brought up a great point that the youth need to be taught skills in order to develop their emotional literacy and maturity. Often when he asks young people to define ‘abuse’ it is difficult for him to get an answer. These skills aren’t always taught in the school settings, which is why his organization provides these opportunities for youth. Teaching youth how to grow as healthy young people and to deal with the everyday obstacles that come with being in areas affected by gun and gang violence is what he does as a community leader. He shares that this kind of work is vital to changing young people’s trajectory in life.
3.Stricter Gun Control: Lonnie Phillips presented this question to all those in attendance: “Why do youth feel they need to have a gun in the first place?” Earlier in the session, when discussing gun possession, many of the panelists shared that youth carry guns for a number of reasons, but mostly for protection. They see people they know with them and they have access to them in ways like never before. For Phillips, asking this question is what will lead to the root of the problem with gun violence; guns. He advocates for more restrictions on gun sales, stricter background checks, and not allowing assault weapons to be sold to everyday citizens. He shares that a perfect gun policy would have better gun control laws in order to stop the violence at the source.
4.Provide Victim Services: Sandy Phillips supplemented her husband’s input with an emphasis on trauma-informed care. She shares that to deal with gun violence, you cannot forget about the victims’ suffering. Regardless of age, all victims need to be provided a space to process their trauma in a productive manner, which is why Survivors Empowered advocates for local colleges to offer these types of classes and spaces.
Now sprinkle some equity into the conversation. A good point brought up in the discussion was that Black and Brown communities normally receive very different responses when it comes to the trauma-informed care that is provided at the crime scenes. When gun violence occurs in a predominately White neighborhood it will get immediate response, robust assistance and days of news coverage. It’s likely there will be a large team of counselors dispatched to the scene, and provided to the victims and their families afterwards. However, in the low income, predominately Black and Brown communities, authorities treat these events like an everyday occurrence; no urgency, no extra services, just figuring out the most efficient way to pack up and move on. And the sad part about that statement is law enforcement treats it that way because shootings and homicides become an everyday reality for some of these communities. But that does not mean they don’t deserve the same resources, services and attention that other suburban, White, rich neighborhoods get. It’s called equal protection under the law, but unfortunately for the victims in these lower-income neighborhoods they often are the ones who end up in handcuffs.
5. Change policies to make gun companies accountable: Max Coston pointed out that gun companies are a huge part of the decision making on gun reform. Current gun policies were designed to protect the rights of companies that grossly profit from gun sales. Often times, when these companies face legal action, they settle with huge payouts and deals to avoid accountability. Also, because these companies have so much money, they have major power when it comes to influencing lobbyists and policymakers. One policy Coston highlighted is the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). This law specifically protects manufacturers and dealers from liability and damages caused by their products. Good news in California is that According to the LA Times California lawmakers are creating legislation(Assembly Bill 1594) that would “allow gun violence survivors and other citizens to sue firearm manufacturers and dealers”. So for those of us living here, there is a silver lining when it comes to gun policy reform.
6. Structural changes in criminal justice system: Dave Myers brought up the role that the private prison industry plays in all of this. The private prison industry is known for building its business on the backs of Brown and Black men. Incarceration rates have risen dramatically over the last decade, given the label “mass incarceration”, and the school-to-prison-pipeline acting as the foundation of how many youth end up incarcerated as adults. From an early age, education and justice systems can determine which kids will end up in the pipeline. Youth with learning disabilities, living in poverty, Black or Latino, history of disciplinary issues, or low reading levels are more likely to become involved in the juvenile system, which makes them more likely to enter the adult system and begin the vicious cycle of reoffending.
Myers mentioned that the pipeline is fed because the racist ways laws are enforced by police. Law enforcement has a wide range of discretion in how they enforce the law and due to individuals’ unconscious bias and socialized norms, it is impossible to enforce laws equally. As law enforcement agencies receive greater funding they also receive higher expectations to deter crime; leading to things like the creation of gang task forces and setting lofty goals of getting guns and drugs off the streets. The combination of these biases mixed with pressure to meet goals leads to targeting. We want to protect our youth, not target them. Myer’s solution is that the money these agencies receive should be allocated to community-based resources instead.
The session itself brought both the harsh realities and the hopes for the future when it comes to gun violence prevention. There were times when the room was dead silent, and when clapping erupted with a passion. When it comes to gun violence prevention, each of these panelists have great success in their “own lanes”, but in order to be effective at a higher and more influential level, they must learn how to bridge these lanes together to create a direct path to sustained change. Gun violence has often been viewed as a single issue policy, but the reality is that the root cause comes from multiple intersecting systems. In order to lower the rates of gun violence, everyone must work on multiple fronts, at all the intersections, in order to make an impact.
My hope is that this article will reach many people in San Diego who care about gun reform. I hope it will shed light on the people and organizations represented above that our in the community doing the ground work. I also hope it will educate all of us on the multi-faceted nature of gun reform and teach us something new. When it’s time to vote I encourage people to pay attention to the measures and bills on the ballots and do their research.
Lastly, I also hope that these conversation will effect change outside of San Diego. I hope policy will pass to force gun manufacturers to exercise more accountability. I know all of us will see that this issue is URGENT. Everyday we see more and more headlines covering school shootings and children being shot down. Our kids are afraid to attend places that should be safe. The lack of proper resources and skills, leads these students to result in fighting and violence. The cycle of violence needs to end and it can start with every single one of us at a local level. Volunteer, donate, stay informed, remain educated on issues and most importantly VOTE!
I want to thank every person involved in the panel for what they do. I felt so reenergized and hungry to pursue change. Please feel free to visit their websites linked above.
Don’t grow weary,
Sharoll Damron
