U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., on Friday called for school improvements and other actions to address the root causes of gun violence that disproportionately impacts Black communities.
The first-term congressman, in collaboration with the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and gun violence prevention groups, hosted the Prince George’s County Gun Violence Survivors Week Action Summit in Washington, D.C.
The three-hour summit was organized to highlight “major structural challenges that create these types of disparities that lead to violence in Black communities,” Ivey told theGrio.
“Pockets of poverty, struggling schools, lack of job opportunities” are some of the reasons for gun violence,” Ivey said. “We need to have better and stronger school systems across the nation and we need to expand job opportunities.”
Dr. Tyreese McAllister, with MOMS Demand Action Prince George’s County, an organization that aims to curb gun violence, lost her 18-year-old daughter Ayana to gun violence in 2017.
“Ayana was a college student who was a joy and who had never been in trouble,” she said. “We just didn’t think this would be our life…we did all of the right things to keep our children safe.”
The teen was a college student attending Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was home in Washington, D.C., on spring break when she was shot while watching a music video filming.
“We are now fighting, not so much for Ayanna because there is nothing anyone can do for Ayanna,” McAllister told theGrio. “But, we are now fighting so that everyone is safe from gun violence,” she added. “We have to do something because it’s not good for anyone’s mental health.”
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