The Gun Problem We Don't Want to Discuss

Inner-city shootings and murders are largely ignored. Isn't that racist?

a handgun lying beside a casket

Shots rang out around 8 p.m. Friday in a neighborhood on Cleveland’s east side. At least one of the bullets struck a 10-year-old boy sitting in a car. The driver immediately took the child to the local police precinct for help. EMS arrived at the police station and rushed the boy to the hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound to the head. Early Saturday morning, the boy died from his injuries.

So far, no arrests have been made. "This is a tragedy that should never happen, and we owe it to this child — and every child — to do more, to be better, and to demand a world where kids can grow up without fear and violence,” Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb said following the incident. “As we grieve, we also seek justice.”

Over the next few days, loved ones will grieve. Mourners will leave flowers and stuffed animals by the crime scene. Some politicians and activists will call for safer streets and an end to gun violence. They will call for justice for the murder of Kaden Coleman-McCurry.

From the GoFundMe for Kaden Coleman-McCurry

Then it will all go away. As that child is laid to rest, so will the cries for change be muted. The shootings, though, will keep happening.

On Sunday morning, a 38-year-old woman was found shot to death inside a car not far from where Kaden was shot. Around 8 AM on Monday, a 34-year-old man was shot inside a building in another area of the city. Later in the day, police reported that a man in his 20s had “at least one GSW (gun shot wound) to the head and one to the neck as well.”

Cleveland proudly touts an overall decline in violent crime over the last several months, but some residents think that’s BS. Their neighborhoods experience gun violence regularly.

Even more disturbing, the perpetrators are getting younger. Last year, 41 youths were charged in 29 homicides in Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is located. Of those suspects, nine were in middle school; the youngest suspect was 12 at the time of the crime. Middle-schoolers committing murder seems unthinkable, but if they grow up in a neighborhood where grownups commit violent crimes, they may see no other options.

The communities in which most of these violent crimes are happening are largely poor and Black. The incidents don’t receive the attention they should because they happen “over there.” In a midsized city like Cleveland, “over there” is often not that far away, yet, there’s little outcry from Cleveland as a whole. Why is that? What could be done to stop the violence? How can kids stay out of juvenile detention and get on a path toward success?

These are the questions that seldom get answered. The Critical Reader is going to spend the next several weeks trying to address the questions and find people and organizations with real solutions. Stay tuned.