Australian news team examines gun violence and reduction efforts in Philadelphia

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Jim MacMillan

Rob Hill of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation captures footage of a sidewalk memorial while reporting on gun violence in Philadelphia. Photographs for the Gun Crisis Reporting Project by Joseph Kaczmarek.

One of our strategies for impact at the Gun Crisis Reporting Project includes supporting other journalists and news organizations who seek solutions to gun violence.

The Australian reporting team covered this fatal shooting scene in the Francisville section of Philadelphia.

Recently, Washington correspondent Lisa Millar of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and video journalist Rob Hill came to Philadelphia, spending two nights on the street with Gun Crisis partner Joseph Kaczmarek to get a look at the challenge.

The ABC team also met with many of the individuals working directly to reduce violence in our city, including Dorothy Johnson-Speight of Mothers in Charge, Marla Davis Bellamy of Philadelphia Ceasefire, Dr. Amy Goldberg and Scott Charles of the Cradle to Grave Program at Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia Managing Director Rich Negrin, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, and more.

Lisa Millar interviews Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small at the fatal shooting scene in the Francisville section of the city.

Millar also attended a discussion of grassroots gun violence solutions with us in Southwest Philadelphia. Like two Gun Crisis partners, Millar is also a Dart Center Ochberg Fellow, part of a community of journalists striving improve reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy.

Rob Mill mounts a camera on Kaczmarek's car.

Rob Hill mounts a camera on Kaczmarek’s car.

We would like to thank the ABC team for their attention and will share links when the video report is produced and distributed.

Producer Dee Porter at the ABC in Washington was also instrumental in planning the coverage.

If you want to get involved in gun violence reduction in Philadelphia, please consider volunteering with or donating to one of the organizations under our Network tab. If you would like us to add your group to our list, please email us at info@guncrisis.org.

Please share your ideas to stop the shooting in our community by using the #phillypeaceplan hash tag when communicating on social media: http://guncrisis.org/phillypeaceplan/

The Gun Crisis Reporting Project is an award-winning, independent, nonprofit journalism community striving to illuminate the epidemic of homicide by gunfire in Philadelphia — and to find solutions.

But we need your help. Click to see how your tax-deductible contribution can support our volunteer staff.

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Notable Quotables on Gun Violence in Philadelphia

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Jim MacMillan

Tara Murtha reports for Philadelphia Weekly about a recent panel discussion on gun violence in Philadelphia:

Philadelphia Police recently confiscated these guns. Photo by Tara Murtha.

Physicians for Social Responsibility hosted a presentation this week at the Friends meetinghouse for approximately 100 community members concerned about the causes and impact of gun violence in Philadelphia. One chilling statistic projected on the wall made clear the scope of the problem: Between 2001 and 2010, 1446 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. In the same period of time, 3394 Americans were killed on streets of Philadelphia. Of those, 2770 were killed with guns.

Dr. C. William Schwab, a surgeon who specializes in firearm injury and is the director of two related Penn-based initiatives — the Firearm & Injury Center at Penn and the Trauma Network — discussed the medical realities of shooting victims:

“We kill more children with guns in America than all the other combined G-20 countries. That’s a terrible thing to say about we the people of the United States.”
“If I want to train someone how to treat gun wounds, I tell them to join the military or come to Philadelphia.”
“No training, in the military or not, could have prepared me for…

Read the full post at Philadelphia Weekly: Notable Quotables on Gun Violence in Philadelphia

Editor’s note: This is the fifth post in a collaboration between Philadlephia Weekly and the Gun Crisis Reporting Project.

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Gun Crisis Solution of the Day: Volunteer with Mothers in Charge to support the “Cost of Violence National Conference”

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Jim MacMillan

costofviolence.mothersincharge.org

One 11-year-old lost his uncle and a cousin to gun violence last year in Philadelphia. A 10-year-old has learned to identify different weapons by the sounds they make when fired.

These are just two examples of how gun violence impacts life in Philadelphia, and among many cited by Mothers in Charge Executive Director Dorothy Johnson-Speight during a recent community meeting in North Philadelphia.

This spring, Mothers in Charge is hosting the first “Cost of Violence National Conference on Violence Prevention and Behavioral Health,” and is seeking volunteers in advance as well as during the event.

The group is looking for help with everything from event registration data entry to hosting for guests at the Evening Commencement and Peace Gala on May 7th.

First Lady Michelle Obama with Dorothy Johnson-Speight

Scheduled participants include Philadlephia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and Arthur C. Evans, Jr., Commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health.

Johnson-Speight invited First Lady Michelle Obama to attend when they met in Washington last month.

Sessions will convene at the Sheraton Downtown Philadelphia Hotel on Monday and Tuesday, followed by Tuesday night’s gala and then a Mother’s Walk for Peace to Philadelphia LOVE Park on Wednesday, May 8th.

Get the latest news on the conference at: costofviolence.mothersincharge.org.

If you are interested in volunteering or exhibiting, email info@mothersincharge.org.

Dorothy Johnson-Speight concluded the meeting with her constant reminder that “No one is safe until we’re all safe.”

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Gun Crisis Solution of the Day: Recommendations from national pediatric professional organizations

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Jim MacMillan

Earlier this week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a statement from a group of pediatric emergency and trauma physicians at St. Louis Children’s Hospital:

St. Louis Children’s Hospital

Since 2002, St. Louis Children’s Hospital has cared for 771 children injured or killed by gunfire; 35 percent were younger than 15.

We concur with recent recommendations from more than a dozen national pediatric professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Academic Pediatric Association, and the American College of Surgeons in response to the Newtown school shooting. We called for action in three areas: reinstating and revising the ban on assault weapons and large ammunition magazines; improving quality and availability of mental health services; and reducing the exposure our children have to media violence.

In addition, we called for increasing research on the relationship of these factors on the epidemic of death and injury to children caused by firearm violence and for ending restrictions to this research imposed by Congress.

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Gun Crisis Insider: Bringing attention to the epidemic of gun violence

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Jim MacMillan

After a brutal stretch of gun violence news last week, and another violent weekend, we are enjoying a comparatively quiet period this morning, which is the best news we ever have the opportunity to deliver.

Last Monday, we had to split the staff we had intended to cover Vice President Biden’s gun safety roundtable in Philadelphia in order to cover the courthouse shooting in Wilmington, Delaware, while watching local reports of another child bringing a gun to school and national coverage of the Christopher Dorner manhunt.

Tom Kelly IV was honored by the National PRess Photographers Assocaition for his work with the the Gun Crisis Reporting Project.

Tom Kelly IV was recently honored by the National Press Photographers Association for his work with the the Gun Crisis Reporting Project, including this photograph of a Philadelphia Police helicopter over the scene after two teens were shot to death in the Overbrook section of the city last summer.

This morning, with no reports of new overnight shooting victims in Philadelphia, your editor just spent a little while updating media coverage of the Gun Crisis Reporting Project at http://guncrisis.org/press/

In recent weeks, the Daily Gazette reported on our new collaboration with a Peace and Conflict Studies course at Swarthmore, the Daily Pennsylvanian took notice of our project in a report on local gun violence reduction efforts and the Groundswell blog covered us again, this time in a report on tracking projects led by independent journalism organizations.

Recently, we collaborated with a British ITN news team for several nights and have been in touch with more international news agencies interested in examining gun violence in cities like Philadelphia.

A sheet partially covers the victim as police investigate a fatal shooting on the 3200 block of Spangler Street Allegheny West section of Philadelphia on Sunday June 24, 2012. Police said four people were shot, one fatally, when a gun battle broke out during an unofficial block party. Photograph by Joseph Kaczmarek for the Gun Crisis Reporting Project.

Joseph Kaczmarek of the Gun Crisis Reporting Project was honored by the NPPA for his coverage on this fatal shooting scene in the Allegheny West section of Philadelphia last summer.

And finally, Gun Crisis Reporting Project partners Joseph Kaczmarek and Tom Kelly were recognized with more honors than any other Philadelphia news organization in the National Press Photographer’s recent Northern Short Course competition.

You won’t catch us celebrating before we can point to long-term reductions in gun violence, but we believe that this attention supports our goals of more clearly illuminating and defining the challenge of gun violence reduction, by enhancing the discussion of solutions, and by accelerating the demand to disrupt the epidemic of homicide by gunfire.

How do you think we can come together to stop the shooting? When you discuss gun violence solutions on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Flickr or Instagram, be sure to include the #phillypeaceplan hashtag and we will add your comments to our compilation of responses. More info: http://guncrisis.org/phillypeaceplan/

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