JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan traveled to Washington on Friday to meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss a new federal office of gun violence prevention.
The news comes 26 days after Jacksonville witnessed one of its worst hate crimes in recent history when a white man who hated Black people, according to the sheriff, murdered three Black residents inside a Dollar General store and then took his own life.
Now, the new federal office is being formed to address gun violence in America.
“After every mass shooting, we hear a simple message, the same message all over the country, and I’ve been to every mass shooting: ‘Do something. Please, do something. Do something to prevent the tragedies that leave behind survivors that will always carry the physical and emotional scars, the families who will never quite be the same, communities overwhelmed by grief and trauma. Do something,’” President Biden said.
Biden has asked Harris to lead the first-ever federal office of gun violence prevention, which will seek to find ways around congressional inaction to stem rising violence.
People who live in the area where the Dollar General shooting took place are still feeling the anger and are not sure what is going to help.
The memorial at the store is still standing strong and serves as a reminder of how gun violence is tearing communities apart.
The president met with Mayor Deegan and other mayors from across the county to announce how the new office would work to provide funding for programs in areas struggling with gun violence.
Harris, a former prosecutor and state attorney general, has years of experience on the issue and was the natural fit to lead the effort, White House officials said. Adding the new office to her portfolio means Harris is tasked with some of the highest-profile domestic issues — including voting rights and abortion, as well as the increase in migration to the U.S. But they’re also among the most fraught, difficult to solve and hard for Democrats to make headway on in Congress.
The office fulfills a key demand of gun safety activists who banded together as a coalition to endorse Biden for president in 2024, and is an effort by the White House to keep the issue front-and-center as Biden pushes for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and works to mobilize voters critical to his reelection strategy — suburban women, voters of color and younger voters.
Overall, stricter gun laws are desired by a majority of Americans, regardless of what the current gun laws are in their state. That desire could be tied to some Americans’ perceived impact of what fewer guns could mean for the country — namely, fewer mass shootings.
As of Wednesday, there have been at least 35 mass killings in the U.S. so far in 2023, leaving at least 171 people dead, not including shooters who died, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
After the murders in Jacksonville last month, Deegan told the community she would do what she could to help.
“The division has to stop. The hate has to stop. The rhetoric has to stop,” Deegan said.
The new federal office could be a start.
Looking at the number of gun crimes in Jacksonville this year, it’s down when compared to the same period last year.
News4JAX has reported there were 133 people killed by guns in Jacksonville last year between January and September. So far this year, that number is 89, including those killed in the Dollar General attack.
A total of 261 people have been shot in the city this year, 16% less than in the same period last year, according to News4JAX records.
Despite the lower numbers community groups still say more needs to be done to curb the violence.
A.J. Jordan of Mad Dads, an organization that fights against drugs and social disorder, said the meeting with the mayor and president is important but more important is how the community deals with gun violence.
“It takes many different factors to solve our gun issues. It takes people speaking up, it takes parents being involved, teachers being involved, takes our city and our share of being involved in it. So that’s just one part, the funding part of it. But the bigger part of it is people being involved in these, in our young people,” Jordan said.
News4JAX also spoke with Ernestine Allen near the murder scene at the Dollar General store. She has family across the street.
“I think it’s time we get national attention,” said Allen, who thinks the new federal program could help.
Deegan called the day productive in Washington.
“We had lots of promising conversations about federal grants to bring home to Jacksonville, and it was an honor to be part of the @WhiteHouse Office of Gun Violence Prevention announcement. Collaboration and partnerships are how we solve our city’s challenges,” Deegan said.
Deegan planned to meet with officials about securing grants for the city on Friday morning before the event at the White House.
The office will also seek to find ways to stop increasing violence nationwide without any additional action from Congress. Republican support for gun restrictions has slipped in the year since the law was enacted, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.