Study: Young Black Males Feel They Need To Carry Guns For Safety

To the participants, carrying a gun was a logical and necessary conclusion to their calculus of survival.

A new study recently published in the Delaware Journal of Public Health provides a candid look into the perception of young Black males in Houston, Baltimore, Jackson, Mississippi, and Wilmington, Delaware, locations often associated with violence.

According to WHYY, researchers at Texas Southern University, Delaware State University, Coppin State University, Jackson State University, and Thurgood Marshall University conducted the study among Black males between 15 and 24 who either recently owned or currently own firearms.

Their study, which is titled “Understanding The Perception of Place and Its Impact on Community Violence,” depicts that many of the Black males who participated felt they needed a firearm for protection after they witnessed or experienced gun violence in their neighborhoods.

These events often led the participants to describe their cities in a negative light, most often using the terms “murder town,” “treacherous,” “crazy,” “chaotic,” and “war zone” to describe their respective cities.

The respondents also described an early introduction to gun violence, some as young as 10 years of age, and many of them had guns introduced to them by family members.

Their decisions to carry a gun, though shaped by social media pressures, limited economic opportunity, limited role models, and easy access to firearms in their communities, were not made lightly nor in a vacuum.

To the participants, carrying a gun was a logical and necessary conclusion to their calculus of survival.

In Wilmington, the research’s findings remind Armani Coleman, the vice president of Operations at One Village Alliance, a nonprofit organization that aims to give the city’s youth an alternative to street life.

According to Coleman, the responses echo his own life experiences.

“I’ve had friends that were murdered moments after we got off the school bus at the age of 11 and 12 years old,” Coleman recalled to WHYY News.

Timothy Welbeck, the director of Temple University’s Center for Anti-Racism, indicated to the outlet that although the perceptions of the Black males who participated in the study are grounded in lived experience, targeted intervention, such as that provided by One Village Alliance, is necessary.

“It (the study) does read as bleak,” Welbeck said. “There is much work to be done…to help not only to mitigate these factors but to bring hope.”

According to One Village Alliance Director Chandra Pitts, the study does not consider ongoing work to address systemic factors in cities like Wilmington.

“It’s egregiously biased against our children,” Pitts said.

She also noted that systemic inequities have pushed young people into survival mode before alluding that state and local entities must invest in Black youth and their communities if they want to see change.

“We’re in a government system that’s investing greatly in the health, safety, and wellness of parts of the city…and turning their back on entire communities,” Pitts noted.

Pitts’ comments and the study itself, which was funded by the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, underscore the complexity of community gun violence and the ongoing work in various communities to help address it.

Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet, but as Marc Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League, told Vox, addressing the quality of life in Black communities is a vital piece of the puzzle.

“Quality of life in Black and brown and urban communities is a paramount issue. A community that feels victimized on the one hand by the police and on the other by crime and crooks is a tough community to live in,” Morial said.