VOA新闻杂志2022--社区团体敦促支持他们限制枪支暴力的努力

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Community Groups Urge Support for Their Efforts to Limit Gun Violence

In 2021, shooting incidents in the northwestern American city of Seattle, Washington, reached their highest level for the five-year period starting in 2017.

Dominique Davis was inside a Seattle-area religious center one day in March 2021 when a man with a handgun started firing. It was during a meeting of Community Passageways, a group he started that works to stop gun violence.

The gunman shot 19-year-old Omari Wallace several times before fleeing. Wallace was attending a program meant to turn young people away from violence and keep them out of prison. Wallace died from his wounds.

Two more Seattle shootings followed that week.

Davis heard that there were two rival groups whose fights had recently gotten worse. A leader of one of the groups said the only way the violence would stop would be if the groups had more distance between each other.

So Davis got 16 young men from the two groups to leave the city. He paid them to stay away for 30 days and to work with therapists and counselors¹. Davis said that since returning to Seattle, all but three of the young men have faced no criminal charges.

The unusual plan is an example of how community groups are looking for new ways to stop the increase in shootings over the past two years.

It is called community violence intervention². The approach sends people with personal influence within a community to help those most likely to be involved in gun violence. Community violence intervention is not new, but interest in it is growing.

The U.S. Congress recently passed a law aimed at reducing gun violence. It contains measures meant to keep guns away from dangerous people. Through the law, Congress will provide $250 million for community violence prevention. The administration of President Joe Biden has also told city and state governments to use federal pandemic aid money for violence intervention.

Paying money to local organizations is different from usual methods for dealing³ with violence — by using police.

Alia Harvey Quinn is the director of FORCE Detroit. She compares violence intervention to "how we prevent drunk driving with our friends: just intervening and snatching the keys aggressively and using our relationships to do so."

In June at the same church in south Seattle where a shooting took place, Davis invited members of local groups that try to ease conflicts to the front of the room. The leaders were mostly Black. They said their work is part of a long struggle for safety and justice and against racism⁴.

They talked about their methods with members of similar groups from Newark, New Jersey⁵, and Baltimore, Maryland. The meeting was part of an 18-month program supported by the Biden administration. It was paid for by 12 organizations that give to people in need called charities. The Community Violence Intervention Collaborative began in June 2021. Its goal was to train and expand local organizations in 16 cities.

So far, few large cities or states have answered the Biden administration's call to spend money on these programs. But cities have until 2024 to use funding from the $1.9 trillion aid law passed in 2021 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the economic damage the disease caused.

People working in Seattle's gun violence intervention groups feel a growing urgency about their work.

Marty Jackson is the director of the Seattle-area group, the SE Network.

"We totally know the rest of the city needs this kind of attention," Jackson said. "We need resources to replicate⁶ what we know for sure is working in these concentrated places."

Jeffrey A. Butts⁷ is a researcher at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. He said there is not enough research about the effectiveness of such intervention efforts.

"They say, ‘We started doing program X here two years ago and our shootings have gone down by 30 percent,'" Butts said. "But that's not evidence that the program resulted in that change."

But the Biden administration says it hopes its new program can create more money for such efforts.

"By bringing philanthropy, the federal government and (community intervention) leaders together...it puts our country on a path to redefining public safety in this country and reducing gun violence," said Julie Rodriguez, a Biden administration adviser⁸.

Words in This Story

rival — n. a person or thing that tries to defeat or be more successful than another

therapist — n. a person trained in methods of treating illnesses especially without the use of drugs or surgery

drunk — adj. having had too much alcohol and unable to carry out normal actions

snatch — v. to quickly take away

replicate — v. to repeat or copy

concentrated –adj. dense⁹, not spread out over an area

philanthropy —n. the activity of giving money and time for good causes

1 counselors   

n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 )；律师；（使馆等的）参赞；（协助学生解决问题的）指导老师

参考例句：

• Counselors began an inquiry into industrial needs. 顾问们开始调查工业方面的需要。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We have experienced counselors available day and night. ) 这里有经验的法律顾问全天候值班。） 来自超越目标英语 第4册

2 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

3 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

4 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

5 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

6 replicate   

v.折叠，复制，模写；n.同样的样品；adj.转折的

参考例句：

• The DNA of chromatin must replicate before cell division.染色质DNA在细胞分裂之前必须复制。
• It is also easy to replicate,as the next subsection explains.就像下一个小节详细说明的那样，它还可以被轻易的复制。

7 butts   

笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。
• The house butts to a cemetery. 这所房子和墓地相连。

8 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

9 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。