Gun violence continues to carve deep and unequal scars across American communities, with Black families bearing a disproportionate share of the harm. In a commentary published by AFRO American Newspapers, Renée Hall, former Dallas police chief and president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, argues that the nation’s failure to confront gun violence as a true public health priority is costing lives, particularly in communities of color.
Hall describes repeated scenes of grief in neighborhoods rocked by shootings, where children learn to distinguish gunshots from fireworks “before they can spell their own names.” She writes that gun violence is now the leading cause of death for American children and teens, a reality that intersects with long-standing racial inequities in exposure to violence, trauma, and loss. These deaths, she notes, devastate families in cities and towns alike, but fall hardest on Black communities that experience chronic underinvestment and overexposure to firearms.
Despite political rhetoric about fighting violent crime, Hall challenges national leaders for sidelining the weapon most responsible for lethal violence. “We cannot continue saying we care about violent crime while ignoring the very weapon responsible for taking American lives faster than any other means of interpersonal violence,” she writes. The result, she argues, is a cycle in which communities are asked to show resilience while leaders fail to act.
Hall emphasizes that law enforcement and families cannot solve the crisis alone. She calls for federal leadership and sustained investment in violence interruption, mental and behavioral health services, and youth opportunity. Such measures, she argues, are essential to prevent the trauma that compounds existing racial health disparities and shortens lives.
Framing gun violence as an American problem rather than a political inconvenience, Hall warns that without urgent action, today’s mourning communities will not be the last.
See: “Gun violence crisis demands urgent national action” (December 17, 2025)
