Violence Interrupters

June is Gun Violence Awareness Month. While the terrible and growing number of high-profile mass shootings continues to make news, these events represent just a fraction of the toll that gun violence extracts. Community-level shootings, acts of intimate partner violence, and suicides comprise most gun violence incidents in this country.

In March, more than 300 young adults converged in Washington, D.C,. (and online) to learn a new strategy for making our communities safer from gun violence: violence interrupter programs.

Every day, 321 people are shot in the United States. For decades policymakers have debated how to address the scourge of gun violence, often defaulting to a militarized police response. This solution has repeatedly failed, with sometimes fatal consequences. We need a new way forward, and a promising solution does exist. That’s where FCNL’s network of young adult advocates comes in.

The bipartisan gun reform bill passed in June 2022 was a significant step forward. But Congress has far more work to do to address gun violence, particularly at the community level.

Community members and leaders are searching for a solution as violent crime rises across the United States. Too often, the default response of politicians has been to pump more money into policing.

Traditionally, cities have responded to community-level violence by increasing the presence of a militarized police force. This solution has repeatedly failed. A new solution, one that comes from within the community itself, offers a new way forward: violence interrupters.

There are many solutions to community-based violence, but one main one is violence interrupters. This work goes to the heart of the Quaker Peace testimony by reducing violence in communities.

Violence interrupters or “credible messengers” as they’re sometimes called identify those most likely to commit violence, they intercede, mentor, teach nonviolence, provide alternative thought processes, and alter the group norms that would sustain or perpetuate violence.