Why is there so much gun violence in Birmingham?

• Thousands of people have been shot in this country this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
  
• In Birmingham, there were 100 homicides last year.
• And dozens more throughout the Jefferson County area in 2018.
• Gun violence is a national and local problem. We went out to find some answers.

Flashing blue lights. A sign of trouble. In Birmingham — the largest city in Alabama — police say there are hundreds of shootings a year.

We visited the city’s West End. Neighbors say they hear gunfire all the time.

Cristie Fontanez moved to Birmingham from Syracuse about a month ago. She’s heard gunfire twice in recent weeks.

“It’s very frightening. Because, at one point, I was a victim of a crime. So, it’s very frightening to think that someone could overpower you with a firearm,” Fontanez said.

Shootings are a public health issue

Shootings are more than a crime problem. They’re a public health issue. So, we went to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to learn more.

Russell Griffin is an associate professor and epidemiologist at the UAB School of Public Health. He showed us a graph on his computer. It shows firearm-related injuries that doctors treated at UAB Hospital.

“From 331 in 2010. And in just less than a decade, you’ve seen a jump of almost two-fold to 697 injuries last year,” Griffin said.

“What goes through your mind when you hear about another shooting?” I asked Griffin. “How do you stop it? I mean how do you prevent this from occurring?” Griffin said.

Most shootings happen in Birmingham’s neighborhoods, outside of the city’s central business district

Brandon Johnson is Birmingham’s director of community engagement. He showed us around his new headquarters—ground zero for finding solutions to Birmingham’s gun violence. We talked to him near some maps of communities in the Birmingham area.

“We’re starting to do some planning around where we better align and integrate city services on a community level,” Johnson said.

Johnson grew up on Chicago’s Southside—around gunfire. He said he knows how unsettling it is for families to live in an area where gun violence is normalized.

The underlying causes of gun violence in Birmingham

Johnson said Birmingham’s current level of gun violence has been building for generations.

“We had white flight. We had deliberate disinvestment in the economy of Birmingham, in the social services of Birmingham, in the schools of Birmingham,” Johnson said.

Johnson said there are three key issues that have led to gun violence over the years:

• Birmingham schools haven’t made students competitive in the workforce.
• The city hasn’t been aggressive preparing people for the new economy.
• Plus, there’s the trauma of living in poverty.

While city leaders work on solutions, Cristie Fontanez locks her doors.

“When the street lights go down, have your buns in the house. That alleviates a lot of danger.” Fontanez said.

City leaders will announce a strategy to crack down on gun violence

The city plans to announce a long-term strategy to crack down on gun violence in the next few weeks.

Brandon Johnson and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin look at it this way: What have we done to create the environment that causes people to shoot or kill others?

They plan to attack those underlying issues and treat gun violence like a disease.