Gun violence is a leading cause of death for young people in Ohio.
The problem is especially severe in Cuyahoga County, where the gun homicide rate is more than twice the state average.
“A gun is easier for people to get than a cell phone. Just think about that for a minute,” said Marlene Harris-Taylor.
She’s the director of engaged journalism with Ohio Newsroom member station Ideastream Public Media in Cleveland and the executive producer and co-host of the podcast “Living for We.”
Its second season, “Keep Ya Head Up,” explores the idea that there are two victims behind every bullet: the person in front of the gun and the person pulling the trigger.
And it focuses on solutions to the epidemic.
“As we know, gun violence is a huge health disparity,” Harris-Taylor said. “There's so many systemic and structural issues that are behind the explosion in gun violence, and we wanted to explore all of that.”
She joined The Ohio Newsroom to talk about the podcast and what she learned from the project.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
On both sides of the gun
“In Episode 1, we hear from two young men who are active on the streets, which means they're actually out there robbing people, shooting people. How often do we even think about the person that's pulling the gun, other than to think about them as a criminal, that they need to be thrown in jail? Absolutely people need to be held accountable for their actions. But what we found is that often there's a trauma that's happened in that person's life who ends up being the one pulling the trigger.”
On the cycle of violence
“Before we even recorded one episode of the podcast, we held five ‘listen and learn’ sessions across Northeast Ohio, where we worked with grassroots organizations that are in the gun violence space. They brought together people for us to just listen to. And we heard so many different themes emerge across those meetings. One of those themes we heard was around how kids, at 10, 11, 12, 13, are picking up the gun for the first time. And it gives them this sense of power, invincibility. We heard that over and over again.
“We also heard they're picking up the guns often because they feel like, ‘This is what I see everywhere.’ It’s what their role models are doing. Or they might be picking up the gun out of a need. Another young man on the podcast talks about how his mom was a single mom. She needed help. And he felt like, at that early age, he had to be the man in the house and he had no other way of getting income other than by using a gun.”
On solutions to gun violence
“Guns aren't going anywhere. There's going to be no changes in Ohio law anytime soon, or at the federal level. So we know these guns are going to be on the streets. As we learned through the podcast, a gun is easier for people to get than a cell phone. Just think about that for a minute.
“So what else can be done? In each episode, we feature a grassroots person who's working with particularly young men, but sometimes young women. And what we found through so many conversations is there needs to be a trusted person who that young person can relate to and find a new role model — a different kind of role model, not the kind of role model of somebody who's active, but somebody who's now seen another way of living and can help show them another way.
“This gun violence issue is everywhere. It's in Chicago. It's in California. It's everywhere. So we are hopeful that we can find solutions that everyone can use.”
