The complex fears of the gun violence generation
Gen Z activists are trying to get their peers – and the adults who created the gun violence crisis – to hear them out.
Beyond Bullets
Gun violence is a public health crisis in Kalamazoo County. This special project explores the root causes, consequences, and solutions — from the perspective of the people and neighborhoods most affected.
Latest in Beyond Bullets
‘We lose so many kids’
In this month’s Beyond Bullets Interview, Alisa Watkins-Monroe talks about the trauma she sees way before people pick up a gun – and what she and her colleagues are doing to stop it from getting there.
‘We are survivors of gun violence’
Young people speak candidly about the realities of everyday gun violence in Kalamazoo, shedding light on its distressing prevalence among a generation left powerless to protect themselves.
‘Right now they’re crying out.’
The Interview: NowKalamazoo talks with Dontray Hemphill about his outreach to protect kids from a racist system and to make choices that will keep them from incarceration.
Reading the Blueprint intended to end gun violence
NowKalamazoo’s Beyond Bullets project breaks down the new Blueprint for Peace.
‘It’s really heavy work’
Their personal trauma with gun violence equips local intervention workers to fight on the front lines against it. But at what cost to their own mental health? How a shift in the traditional approach to therapy supports a group that’s usually reluctant to do it.
‘All kids our age think of nowadays is guns’
Mass shootings may get the national headlines, but for young people in Kalamazoo, hearing gunshots and seeing threats of gun violence are so routine it feels inescapable. It’s a heavy burden they’re forced to carry into the start of summer break.
The big fight
A two-year-old boxing gym that trains professional fighters is growing out of its digs in Kalamazoo’s Edison neighborhood, largely because it is so popular with kids grappling with real life issues.
‘He’s never gonna be the same again’
What type of support does a child need to recover from the trauma of being shot? A Kalamazoo mother is on a lonely search for that answer.
‘Time to double down’
Advisor to a gun violence prevention initiative in Kalamazoo says the severity of the crisis looms large, despite a recent drop in homicides.
