Ten-year-old Keontre “Tre” Thornhill loved action movies and was preparing to spend the summer doing lawn care services with his stepfather. James R. Carter, 84, owned the Triple C Convenience store and was called the “grandfather of Norfolk.” Ty’jonte Terry was a 14-year-old who loved basketball and was well liked among the other kids who frequented the Aqueduct Boys and Girls Club in Newport News.
These are a few of the lives, along with so many others, taken from Hampton Roads by gun violence in recent months. They are part of an unrelenting torrent of anguish, anger and sorrow that touches countless area families, ravages our communities and demands comprehensive, determined and urgent action.
Today The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press begin a multi-part series on the region’s gun violence crisis, called “Shots Fired.” It is an effort to define and explain the scope of the problem, tell the stories of those affected and, most importantly, advance workable solutions for halting the bloodshed.
Reporters, of course, won’t take sides, but will elevate voices in our community to provide a full view of what’s happening in Hampton Roads, from shooting victims and their families, to law enforcement working to ensure the public safety, to gun enthusiasts and retailers, to those leading programs aimed at reducing violence.
Gun violence is a complicated issue that presents a host of challenges. There is no singular solution that will solve it. The hope is that, through this series, Hampton Roads will better understand the situation unfolding each day in our cities and participate in initiatives that can make our region a more safe and peaceful place to live.
There is no better time for this issue to be in the spotlight.
On Friday, Virginia Beach marked the fifth anniversary of the Municipal Center shooting, a tragedy that claimed the lives of 11 city workers and one contractor. It was carried out by a city employee who had resigned earlier in the day, and who was killed by police responding to the violence.
Mass shootings are rare, and represent a fraction of the nation’s annual gun deaths. More common are tragedies such as last weekend, when a 15-year-old was shot and killed near a carnival at Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach last weekend in violence that also critically injured an 18-year-old.
Even less publicized are suicides, though they are included in annual tabulations of gun deaths. The Gun Violence Archive, which compiles this data, reported 43,155 gun deaths in 2023, of which 24,090 or nearly 56% were suicides. Another 36,499 people were injured by gunfire last year.
Those are staggering figures and make the United States an extreme outlier among developed nations. This country also has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world, by a factor of two, a product of having the right to keep and bear arms enshrined as a foundational principle in the U.S. Constitution.
But beyond the numbers are the names, such as Tre Thornhill, James Carter and Ty’jonte Terry, who are the human cost of our inability to curb gun violence. There are the families and friends who have to endure without them, and a region that is diminished by their absence and, in the case of those taken so young, what they could have been.
We cannot shrug our shoulders and accept this as an unchangeable state of play — America’s affliction which it is helpless to remedy. Not when we lose thousands of people each year, not when there are thousands more injured, not when it rips piece after piece away from the fabric of our communities.
“Shots Fired” aims to tell those stories, to broaden public understanding about gun violence and to advance workable solutions for Hampton Roads. Read, discuss, debate … and then let’s get to work.
Do you have a question or comment about our series? Send an email to shotsfired@pilotonline.com.
