By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
The recent increase in gun violence in King County has prompted Councilmember Girmay Zahilay to propose a $1 million investment from the supplemental budget to implement a comprehensive gun violence prevention strategy.
According to Zahilay, his proposal aims to address the root causes of gun violence, which he identifies as poverty, disinvestment, trauma, and lack of anger management resources.
“When people live in poverty, when people face disinvestment, when people face trauma, and when people face an inability to manage their anger, that is when we see gun violence spike,” Zahilay said. He shared his experience of seeing maps showing the highest poverty areas and the highest prevalence of gun violence in King County, which were almost identical. This, he believes, underscores that gun violence is preventable.
Appollonia “Ms. Apple” Washington, co-owner and director of A-4-Apple Learning Center, agrees with Zahilay and says that providing resources and opportunities for youth to engage in positive activities is a key part of the solution.
“You can help prevent gun violence, especially among our youth, by providing more resources and opportunities for them to be engaged in positive ways, which could potentially reduce gun violence,” says Washington.
“In the inner city, there is a lot of crime, which means we need more mental health resources,” added Washington. “If we support those who need mental health resources, not putting them in jail, but providing actual resources, we can prevent them from accessing guns and wandering the streets and offer them positive opportunities.”
Zahilay, who grew up and currently represents the Central Area, South Seattle and Skyway – areas that are experiencing the highest levels of gun violence in the area, says these areas lack the resources that youth need in order to live healthy lives and make better decisions.
“Many of the young people in these communities, including myself when I was growing up, didn’t have parents in the home because their parents were working double shifts and graveyard shifts every day to make ends meet and would leave their kids at home, surrounded by a neighborhood where they don’t feel safe, so they carry guns to protect themselves,” says Zahilay. “They find gangs to help give them protection, help guide them, and help get them resources. So, I absolutely think that there is a connection between poverty and gun violence.”
Dominique Davis, Founder and CEO of Community Passageways, also stressed the need for governmental support in order to address gun violence.
“I know for a fact that the government needs to put resources behind this process and everything that we are dealing with right now,” says Davis. “Government entities of decades and decades of time have been the catalyst to putting us in a position of being in situations of poverty, being underserved, marginalized, and disenfranchised from every system that other people have been able to take advantage of and be successful.”
Davis also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problem by shutting down schools, athletic programs, and other activities that occupied teenagers’ time.
“If you think about COVID and how we shut down all the schools, athletic programs, malls, movie theatres, everything. Now you have thousands of teenagers used to playing sports year-round, working out, travel squads, where their time was no longer occupied,” says Davis. “In the work that I do, we have seen a lot of young people that normally had other outlets of activities to do that were positive, now jumping into the streets because all they had was their devices to occupy their time. They were on their devices, and all the social media trauma and images of gangs, guns, hitters, and steppers was there.”
Last year, King County experienced over 1,701 shots fired incidents, with an overall upward trend since 2018. In response, Zahilay developed his plan to address gun violence, which includes five pillars that focuses on strengthening systems and relationships, creating clear protocols, establishing a resource database and deployment plan, implementing advanced targeted intervention strategies, and securing sustainable funding.
The legislation, co-sponsored by King County Councilmember Jorge Barón, proposes adding $1 million to the Executive’s supplemental budget and mandates King County to develop a specific gun violence prevention plan by September, incorporating the five-pillar strategy.
Following the tragic shooting of Amarr Murphy-Paine at Garfield High School, Zahilay has been actively working with community groups in order to help design that plan from the government that aligns with the initiatives that are taking place at a community level.
“I have been attending monthly public safety meetings at Garfield High School organized by Central District public safety and accountability initiative, and that question of what we can do better for our schools has been central to the meetings lately,” says Zahilay. “A few of the things we have talked about are number one having more alignment and collaboration across every level of government. We should set up a regional board of gun violence prevention that would have a seat for every level of government, first responders, impacted communities, and the youth to get together regularly, collaborate, align efforts, share resources, share information, and that is something that I am working on.”
“I proposed this comprehensive plan to address the crisis through King County’s budget,” continued Zahilay. “By building on the five pillars laid out in my plan, I believe we can more effectively respond to and even prevent the shootings and deaths we are seeing all too frequently. I look forward to working with partners around the region to create a safer community for all,” says Zahilay.
Washington praised Zahilay’s dedication to the cause.
“The five-pillar plan is wonderful because he [Zahilay] has been very active and involved in our public safety meetings. Even before the public safety meetings, he was one of the only government officials who actually took the time to meet with me when I was being very quiet about trying to get change in our communities,” says Washington. “I am glad that he is putting this effort out because I feel that he has been with me since day one since I started this walk of wanting to advocate for change for our community, so I am really excited to see what is to come.”
Davis believes that the proposal is a step in the right direction.
“I think with the government implementing resources, focusing on gun violence, and working with the communities, the new proposal will be successful and effective,” Davis said.
The legislation passed out of the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee along with the 2024 supplemental budget on July 10. If adopted by the full council, the Executive must transmit the required five-pronged gun violence prevention plan to the Council along with the 2025 Budget by September 20, 2024.
