DETROIT – The Spirit of Detroit statue was clad in orange as part of a “Silence the Violence” rally, marking National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
The orange is the color hunters wear to protect themselves in the woods, meaning don’t shoot.
First started in Chicago in 2015, it’s a day that quickly gathered steam across the country.
“We lose so many of our young people to gun violence,” said Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield.
She has been part of the efforts for Detroit to observe Gun Violence Awareness Day since 2016.
“It continues to really tear the very fabric of our city, causing trauma in our communities, and so, we must continue to be united,” Sheffield said.
Rev. Barry Randolph organized the rally from the Church of the Messiah on Detroit‘s east side, and a key message of the rally is that speaking out and speaking up about gun violence—and gun safety—is vital to the community’s survival.
The trend is going down year over year
Detroit police Chief Todd Bettison first joined the department in 1994.
After serving as deputy mayor for two years, he was named chief last November and is leading the department at a time when crime numbers are trending downward, but significant work still needs to be done.
“The fear is real. Gun violence is real. But I would say, be encouraged,” Bettison said. “The city of Detroit is working together collaboratively with us, and we’re seeing tremendous reductions (in gun violence). The trend is going down year over year over year right now.”
Bettison also noted that preventing gun violence is also about being smart about gun safety.
According to the CDC, there are approximately 27,000 unintentional firearm injuries and 500 unintentional firearm deaths per year.
“When you have visitors that come to your house, ask them, ‘Do you have a firearm?’ Oftentimes, a person may go to use your restroom, take their firearm off, leave it somewhere on a counter, and forget about it, and then a child walks in.
Or somebody visiting your house may have a firearm in their purse that’s unsecured and leave it down. And so, really, being conscious that more people are carrying legal weapons and to know where the firearms are at all times.”
Detroit police Chief Todd Bettison
We need to go back to basics
Dr. Larry Diebel, the trauma program director at DMC-Detroit Receiving Hospital, has seen the ravages of gun violence firsthand.
While speaking during the rally, he fought back tears, talking about the people he has treated in the trauma unit over his nearly 40 years of work at the Hospital.
“This winter, I took care of a young kid, three years old, at an adult trauma hospital that picked up a family gun and shot himself, and he survived,” Diebel said. “But the ramifications for this young man, three years old, is going to be forever.”
Diebel, who received his medical degree from Wayne State University in 1980, has worked in trauma units for more than 40 years.
During the rally, he mentioned working during the infamous Devil’s Nights in Detroit during the 1970s and 80s, where the mayhem wasn’t just limited to fires but also shootings and stabbings.
While that is largely a thing of the city’s past, he says the lack of value in human life still remains and needs to be changed.
“It’s more than gun safety. It’s more than more laws about guns; it requires a change of heart.
A change in our consciousness about the value of human life. We tend to remember that happens in our world.
We see human life being devalued, and I think we need to go back to basics that every human life has value.”
Dr. Larry Diebel, the trauma program director at DMC-Detroit Receiving Hospital