WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Greg Jackson takes his work personally. He is the deputy director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which was established in 2023 to reduce the problem nationwide.
"I come to this work as a survivor first," Jackson said. "In April 2013, I was caught in the crossfire and shot with a bullet that hit two arteries and nearly cost me my life. I committed from my hospital room that if I could ever make it out, I’d do all I can to help address this crisis.”
During the Juneteenth Regional Reporters Summit in Washington, D.C., Jackson said homicides have gone down nationwide due to investments made in 2021 and 2022.
For Atlanta in particular, APD Chief Darin Schierbaum said homicides were down 21%, with shooting incidents down 15% and the number of people that were shot down 23%." Data from the Department of Justice confirmed this as well.
"Gun violence is intensely impacting black and brown communities," Jackson said. "This is the number one cause of death for all youth, the number one cause of premature death for black men. We invested, for the first time, in community violence intervention programs, community-led strategies we know could intervene and work with those most at risk before a shooting happens – especially in Black and Brown communities where interpersonal conflict really fuels a lot of the violence."
In Atlanta, police investigated two major shootings last week. On Tuesday, three people were shot in a downtown food court, and a person was shot and killed on a Gwinnett County transit bus nearby. Two convicted felons were suspected in those shootings.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens stressed there were too many guns on the streets getting into the hands of convicted felons. The Mayor's Office of Violence Reduction works to address gun-based crime locally.
Jackson said at the federal level, the Safer Communities Act, which passed in 2022, cracked down on unlicensed private sellers. The DOJ identified them as the number one source for trafficked guns through gun shows or online marketplaces.
"Anyone who's engaged in the business of selling guns must be licensed and must conduct background checks," Jackson said. "That's an additional 20,000 private sellers that now have to be held to the same standards as gun stores."
The bipartisan Safer Communities Act was the first bill passed to address gun violence in nearly 30 years. It also added $15 billion into community-led and law enforcement based strategies to combat gun violence. The law marked the largest investment in youth mental health in American history and funded 14,000 school-based mental health professionals for public schools. Those professionals are undergoing training and many should start in classrooms this year.
Jackson also credited the 988 hotline coming online with a reduction in gun violence. So far, there have been around 9 million calls for support. The efforts to prevent violence come as the number of gun sales has spiked nationwide. Estimates place the amount at quadruple that of the sales in the 90s during the crack epidemic.
Jackson said the crime gun intelligence service was helping, along with a shift to focus on domestic violence as a common contributor to gun violence. Grady Hospital in Atlanta has operated a program over the last year that's had hospital staff working to heal survivors' physical injuries and address the root cause of why they were shot.
Jackson preaches de-escalation to prevent gun violence on a personal level because, to him, the trauma is personal. And so is the work to address it.
"This intensity of being exposed to gun violence and its untreated trauma is a real challenge that our communities are facing," Jackson said. "We are making tremendous progress in providing more resources and support for survivors of gun violence.”
