Name: Gun Violence Is Finally Dropping, but a Trump Presidency Could Change That
Uploaded: 2024-11-05
Duration: 15 min 12 s
Description: 92% of Americans want common-sense gun regulation, so why does it seem like policy is so slow to catch up? At the Fortune Impact Initiative conference in Atlanta, we sat down with Greg Jackson Jr., deputy director of the White House’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, for a discussion on the organization's progress in its first year and what's at stake in this election for public safety.

92% of Americans want common-sense gun regulation, so why does it seem like policy is so slow to catch up? At the Fortune Impact Initiative conference in Atlanta, we sat down with Greg Jackson Jr., deputy director of the White House’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, for a discussion on the organization's progress in its first year and what's at stake in this election for public safety.

Gun Violence Is Finally Dropping, but a Trump Presidency Could Change That

Politics

Fortune's Kristin Stoller sat down with Greg Jackson Jr., deputy director of the White House’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, for a discussion on the organization's progress in its first year and what's at stake in this election for public safety.

 92% of Americans want common-sense gun regulation.

Uh the bullet that hit me, hit two arteries and nearly cost my life. You know, when I arrived at the hospital before I could go into surgery, I was wheeled to a side room, uh with investigators and I had to go through uh three rounds of interrogation before going into surgery. Uh And I nearly bled to death. I mean, I, I was suffering blood loss and my doctor shared, I was within 26 minutes uh of dying and I literally was fighting for my innocence and my life at the same time, Greg, thank you so much for being here with me today. Yeah, thanks for having me. So, of course, I want to start what prompted you to get involved in gun violence prevention. Yeah, I wish it was a fun story. Um But for me, it was really a circumstance that brought me to this movement. Uh in April of 2013, I was out with my cousins at a wedding celebration and we literally uh walked past these two guys in the middle of a fight and one pulled out a gun and started shooting and, and uh, and shot me and uh the bullet hit me, hit two arteries and nearly cost my life. Uh, and I'll never forget, you know, as hard as it was physically going through that. Um, what was harder was how I was treated. You know, when I arrived at the hospital before I could go into surgery, I was wheeled to a side room, uh, with investigators and I had to go through, uh, three rounds of interrogation before going into surgery. And I nearly bled to death. I mean, I, I was suffering blood loss and my doctor shared, I was within 26 minutes, uh, of dying and I literally was fighting for my innocence and my life at the same time. And so coming out of that situation, I just was committed that if I could do anything to reduce this issue or address this crisis, but most importantly, uh, start pushing America to think about saving lives more, uh, and not just solving crimes that, that maybe, uh, less folks could go through what I went through. I'm so sorry, you had to go through that before this tragedy happened. Did you have any stance on gun violence or gun violence prevention or, or just, you know, second amendment or, or gun rights at all? Yeah. So part of my childhood, I grew up in rural America. Uh, my dad actually has 26 guns, uh, which is a lot but for hunting and, and for recreation purposes and we had always seen it as a, as a tool for recreation as part of tradition. You know, my father gave me his first rifle that he got when he was a kid. Like, that's my, that was my first gun that I owned. Um, but that was very different from what I've seen, kinda play out, um, especially post college. I've lost uh, five people that were close to me to gun violence and watching how this is not just a tool that's being used for recreation. This has now become the tool of choice to cause harm and take lives across the country. Really kinda shifted how I think about guns and gun ownership. And unfortunately, I think the tradition of heritage that so many people fondly think of with gun ownership has been distorted by America's obsession with this and lack of efforts to, you know, hold the gun industry and really gun ownership to a responsible standard. Now, speaking of, of, of that and holding people accountable last year, President Biden established the first ever White House Office of gun violence Prevention, which you are the first ever deputy director of. So, congratulations. Talk to me about how that came about for you. Yeah. So, well with my journey, when I got out the hospital, I started to become an activist and up on different issues and what could be done first at the local level in DC. Uh But then a family friend of mine was killed in Greensboro, North Carolina and I saw the smaller cities and small towns were living a very different reality than big cities that had big budgets and resources to address violence. And so I started to advocate nationally to address this crisis. And I joined a big movement of activists. We actually passed the first bill on gun violence in 30 years. Uh The bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022. Uh This bill had over 14 different policy changes, uh $15 billion in investments and violence prevention efforts. And I was one of the main leaders organizing and pushing for that bill uh through my activism. And when it was done, we were excited, we kind of went to the White House, we did a big signing of it a big celebration and we were like, this is great. You know, now you need a team to go implement it. So it's not just sitting around on somebody's desk, you know, but that these dollars can get to communities that the policies can actually be changed. And uh and the president and his team turned around and said, yeah, we're gonna create an office and they called and notified us and I was excited and then they said, well, if you, you know, you help to get us here, how can you, you know, can you join the team to help us make this a reality audience? So, uh that's how I was brought into the, to the White House for the first time, I did not have a lot of suits or any of that. I wasn't like a lifestyle government person. I was purely a survivor and activist that fought for um policy that became law and was empowered to be a part of the change. And so our office was created in September of 2023. Uh And so we just turned a year old, the first ever office of its kind. And we're focused on prevention and really implementing uh a public health approach to what is now a public health crisis. And President Biden was the first president in history to name it a public health crisis. The US surgeon general this year uh released an advisory um confirming that this is a public health crisis. And so the president has been pushing for solutions that are beyond just law enforcement. But how do we think about our mental health supports our housing strategy, even our export strategy and import of goods? Like how are we thinking about keeping dangerous weapons from coming into certain communities or leaving this country and harming other countries? Um But the entire government uh really can play a role in addressing this crisis. And that's what our office has been tasked with, is thinking about how we implement this big law, but also innovatively thinking about how the rest of the government can help us address this crisis. That's a great story is there. Can you point to maybe one or two specific things that your office has done over the past year that you think have been really stand out for just one or two. I'm sure there's a lot. Uh, ok. Well, yes, my favorite highlight highlight real. Um, well, a big one was we talk a lot about illegal guns in America and all the criminals have guns and they're gonna get way, but there's very little, uh, regulations that have been done to really track down and deal with the source of illegal firearms. And so our administration uh actually did the first study of, of gun trafficking in 20 years and figured out where guns are moving. Um who, what is the source of these illegal guns? And how are they getting into the hands of youth that are under age or domestic abusers that are prohibited? And we found some very big things. Uh One, we found the number one source of illegal guns are unlicensed private sellers. So people who are selling guns online on social media at gun shows and most of these folks really have been flying under the radar for a long time. Uh And the way that the policies have been written, they weren't even required to become licensed. And so we changed what it meant to be engaged in the business. And now those folks must be licensed and to give you some scale, that's about 20,000 dealers that were unlicensed that were moving guns under the table that now has to be licensed, have to conduct background checks. We also found that gun trafficking itself wasn't a federal offense so you could traffic firearms and get a written warning or fine. Uh, and that is mind blowing to me. I mean, we found, uh, one person who trafficked 100 and 3000 guns, uh, and was never federally charged. So we made that now federal offense, there's over 600 people that have now been prosecuted for moving guns illegally. And all of that was born from the study. Uh And then the, the existence of our office and this administration's initiative to push forward on these levers to really make sure that we're not just cracking down on that young 13 year old that has a gun to protect himself, maybe illegally, but to protect himself. But we look at who's profiting from this, right? Who's sitting on a yacht somewhere, right? Um And really making money off of these guns that are pushing into our communities uh and causing harm. And so that was one big project, I'm really proud of. Um Another one is that we invested a historic amount of resources. Uh We actually made the biggest investment in youth mental health in American history, uh creating the 988 crisis lifeline that I think people should know about. If you don't, you should save it in your phone. But um now just like you call 911 and you have emergency dispatchers to support you in an emergency. If you call 988, you have registered therapists that are in your region that can help you if you're in a moment of crisis, whether that's harming yourself, harming someone else or you're experiencing or witnessing something. Uh So we helped build that. Uh We also um added uh 14,000 school based mental health professionals to our school systems. Recognizing that so many of our youth are in serious mental health crises right now. And frankly, they just need a trusted helping hand. That doesn't, that may not be a a 988 phone number. It might be uh that guidance counselor or that coach that's now trained in skills to deal with uh mental health challenges. And so uh we're excited that those 14,000 individuals are being trained and deployed into schools and that's a part of our strategy as well. You know, how do we prevent that moment where someone picks up a gun and causes harm? And how do we put dollars in that? The same way we have historically put dollars into holding folks accountable and going to get the bad guy. Oh, that's interesting. Um And I, my big question for you is the thing I keep coming back to with, with gun violence prevention. This whole thing is that, you know, your story happened so long ago, I'm from Newtown, Connecticut where San Diego school shooting happened almost 12 years ago. Now. It just feels to me like progress is so slow and I get very frustrated. I'm sure you, you feel the same way as well, but why, why is it so slow? Why do you think it hasn't, it's taken now for them to establish a gun off the gun violence prevention? Look, I, I think it's very simple. It's leadership. You know, this is the first president to take this issue this serious. I mean, he was the first one to name this a public health crisis. Uh President Biden has done over 50 executive actions on this issue and that's more than any other president combined. Uh If you go back in time of the last two administrations, they've only did four executive actions. So this president has done more than beyond what any other president has done within his power. Uh And again, we, we passed the first law in 30 years. Uh and even with other strategies like COVID relief funds, we put 15 billion of COVID relief funds into violence prevention strategies as well. And so I think it's been hard to see any progress because for too long, um you know, we just haven't had the buy in at the top that this is as serious as it is. Uh And, and I think for too long, we've looked at this as just a mass shooting here, a mass shooting there. Um, but not paid attention to how big of a crisis this is. I mean, this is the number one cause of premature death for all youth in America. But it's been the number one cause of premature death for black youth since 2006. Uh and it's also the number one cause of premature death for black men. And now we're at a point where one in five Americans know someone who've been shot or killed um by guns and gun violence. And I think we've, you know, really neglected this issue until it's gotten to this point of pure crisis for all Americans. And thankfully, we have leadership. Uh and we now have a huge generation of survivors who are activists like myself who are putting pressure on members of Congress who are putting pressure on mayors and governors and even with the bipartisan Safe Communities Act, right? Um So when I was shot, I was shot three days after the failed uh universal background check vote in wake of Sandy Hook, right? Um And when that failed, um the thing you heard from members of congress was, hey, I wanna do something on this issue, but all of my constituents don't want me to take action. You know, I'm hearing too much from my communities that this is not the time, but in 2022 it was the exact opposite. You know, even Republicans, even red states, blue states, rural, rural communities were demanding some type of policy change and some type of legislation to address this crisis. I mean, now 92% of Americans wanna see common sense solutions move forward. And you had 17 Republicans vote for the bipartisan Safer Communities Act. I mean, they voted to enhance background checks. They voted to fund violence intervention programs. They voted for removing firearms from domestic abusers and I was there when the Senate vote happened and I watched Republicans specifically Mitch mcconnell and Met and Mitt Romney high five when it was done, right? They wanted to do what's right. But they didn't have that, that pressure from all angles. And it's unfortunate it took us to get to crisis level for everyone to really put that heat on them. Um But, but a mixture of our added activism and true leadership at the top, I think is what has got us to this point and we are seeing a lot of progress and it's tough because we've been stuck for so long. But things are moving. I mean, last year, uh in 2023 we saw the steepest decrease in homicides in American history. Uh And this year we're seeing a 22% reduction and to make that really concrete, I mean, Boston only has 13 homicides, right? Newark, New Jersey 27 Miami Florida has the lowest homicide rate since the 19 fifties, right? Detroit, since 1967 like the numbers are dropping drastically, even places like Baltimore have seen 20% plus reductions for multiple years in a row. We just left Philly this year. Philly is seeing a 43% reduction. So even though these policies have just changed, the dollars have just hit our communities in a short two years, we're seeing steep decreases because of these changes. And so I don't think it's a time to, to really give up hope. I think we're just getting started now. Speaking of just getting started at, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that in about a month, we have these big elections coming up here in the US. What do you think is at stake here? And, and where do you see the country going in terms of, of continuing the momentum or not that you've built? Yeah, I mean, you know, I'll just be frank, you know, we have done a lot on this issue. Um $30 billion to address public safety, pass the first law in 30 years and over 50 executive actions, all of which focused on this crisis of gun violence. The previous administration brags about doing nothing on this issue. Uh And it already clearly said that they would defund our office. They actually attempted to defund our office already. Um They've already said that they, they're not gonna take any additional action and that this is just how it is. Um And people need to get over it and we know that in our communities, we can't get over it when it's our Children getting on the school bus and having to deal with active shooter drills when it's our cousins and neighbors that are dealing with violence in their communities when it's our aunt or our sister, that's a survivor of domestic abuse and now being threatened with uh lethal force. And so we know as, as an administration that the American people cannot just get over it. We can't just overlook this issue. Uh It's not gonna go away just because we're not talking about it. And we also know that more guns do not make our community safer. So less regulation does not lead to a safer America. And that's how we got here in the first place. And so it's a very clear decision uh of whether we keep building on this momentum and invest in strategies and policies to prevent um, violence before it happens or we just let things play out and, uh I don't think anyone in my community or at least in my family is comfortable with letting things play out. Yeah. Well, Greg, I wish you the best of luck. Thank you so much for joining me. Of course. Thank you. Thanks for having me.