Overview and Context

Abstract

Gun violence often elicits strong reactions across a wide social-economic-political spectrum and touches all of us either directly or indirectly. Gun violence, as it manifests itself in our urban centers, represents the death of an American dream for countless youth and young adults, primarily young people of color, across the nation’s cities and communities. Simply put, a life span must extend beyond age 18. Living long enough to graduate from high school is a nightmare disguised as a dream. Unfortunately, we mourn his death because we are unable to celebrate his life and the potential future contributions he and others like him will simply not make because their lives were cut short or because their health is compromised due to a bullet. His family, and countless other families, are left to pick up the pieces left behind by gun violence.