WASHINGTON — As we enter Gun Violence Awareness Month, murders are up in DC by about 25% compared to this time last year.
Tia Bell, a high school guidance counselor, mom and founder of The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project, says enough is enough.
Bell has spent the last few months organizing the first End Gun Violence Citywide Conference on June 1.
"A lot of people in our community believe that we don’t have the capacity or the bandwidth or the real intention to work together," Bell said.
"Being a girl from DC living in southeast, I know that’s not the case."
The conference creates a space for people with different backgrounds, experiences and ideas to collaborate on solutions to the levels of gun violence that DC Mayor Muriel Bowser recently declared a public health crisis, Bell said.
This year's conference is both a hybrid in-person and virtual event.
Interested in attending? For more information, click here.
Bell said attendees include city leaders, mental health counselors and gun violence survivors.
"You will find safety and belonging," Bell said, "because it is really important that people aim to normalize this trauma, this symptom of oppression, this disease, that's taking us out."
Bell herself is familiar with the pain caused by gun violence. She’s been shaped by it.
When Bell was 10 years old, her mom was shot twice, in broad daylight. Thankfully, her mom survived. But many others haven’t.
“I’ve lost so many family members, I’ve lost so many friends. I’ve started to lose young people that I love and that I need. And that’s on both sides of the gun," Bell said.
Bell founded The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project (True Reasons I Grabbed the Gun Evolved from Risks) to end gun violence in the District. The group is taking a new approach; one that requires listening.
Not just to victims, but also to those who pulled the trigger.
"We need to no longer dismiss our shooters and the perpetrators and the 2% of the population who’s inflicting this pain – because there are reasons why they’re doing this," Bell said.
"If our opportunities and resources combat those reasons, we give them an alternative.”
It’s the heart of Bell’s philosophy: using a public health lens to find out what makes someone more likely to pick up a gun.
These factors include exposure to violence, abuse and low economic opportunity, according to the C.D.C.
“A lot of us don’t want to use the gun, we have to, and we need to feel protected and we need to feel a sense of identity," Bell said.
"Some people may dismiss that message. But if you really break it down, you see that 400 years of oppression led to this moment."