CINCINNATI — Of the 64 people killed in shootings in Cincinnati last year, 14 were children. Five of those victims were younger than 10.
That statistic was put in focus at the city's special gun violence meeting Thursday as Cincinnati now feels the effects of a growing nationwide epidemic.
Since 2020, shootings are the leading cause of death for children, according to Dr. Meera Kotagal at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
Kotagal said across the country, 4.6 million children live in homes where guns are present, and in Cincinnati, children in impoverished communities face the most exposure.
"Children living in the poorest 20% of our neighborhoods have a 30x higher rate of experiencing firearm-related injury than their counterpart children living in the least poor 20% of neighborhoods," she said.
Last October, a 6-year-old accidentally shot and killed his 3-year-old brother in Madisonville after getting his hands on his father's loaded handgun.
"That's why a lot of kids get shot — when firearm owners leave firearms out, unsecured and not boxed or locked up," Rufus Johnson said. "Because when the child picks up the weapon, there's always going to be (a bullet) in the chamber."
Johnson owns R.E.A.L Truth, a gun safety and self-defense course in Cincinnati. His focus is keeping communities safe from gun violence through education and training, especially city youth.
"Guns are already in the community, so therefore we have to educate young people on the right way or how to if they come across (them)," Johnson said.
Johnson takes that training into the classroom. His Youth and Public Safety Training Program centers on the purposes, law, do’s and don’ts, and proper use and storage of a firearm.
"That's the key, what I educate them," he said. "Their job now is to educate somebody else. That's how you cut back on gun violence."
But Johnson and other community members stress access to guns isn't the only issue.
At Thursday's gun violence meeting, people told city leaders there needs to be more investment in recreation centers and youth programs.
"Kids in our end of the West End — we're limited in our resources and capacity," one community member said. "If we had more capacity, we'd have more kids, more activities."
The city declared gun violence a public health crisis in the city a year ago, and some say it won't be fixed unless more focus is put on the well-being of city youth.
"We are seeing vastly larger numbers of pediatric-related mental health issues than we have in the past. It is truly a crisis for us," Kotagal said.
Johnson said people have to put the consequences and lasting impacts of gun violence in the spotlight, emphasizing the need to prioritize mental health and encourage discussions both at home and in the community.
On Friday, UC Health and the Cincinnati Police Department launched a new initiative that connects survivors of gun violence with victims’ advocates when they visit UC Health for follow-up medical care at our outpatient Trauma clinic.
The goal is to connect patients who are recovering from injuries sustained as victims of gun violence with advocates in the police department who can work with them through their recovery and provide them with needed resources.
HOW IT WORKS:
- When someone who has been injured by gun violence is discharged from UC Medical Center, they receive follow-up medical care with the Trauma team in the outpatient setting.
- We currently screen all of our patients who have been victims of gun violence and provide them with mental health resources, but this is not enough.
- During these visits, the physician or nurse will now also ask the patient if they want to speak with a victims’ advocate.
- If the answer is yes, the victims’ advocate will now be onsite in the clinic and will meet with the patient right there. The victims’ advocate will help connect the patient with any resources they might need as part of their immediate recovery: mental health support, housing support, navigating the victims’ compensation process, etc.
- This program is designed to help connect survivors of gun violence with existing resources in the community to help with their whole recovery, not just their medical recovery.
