CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – This past March, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper created the Office of Violence Prevention through an executive order to address gun violence in North Carolina. The statewide office is the first of its kind in the South.
The office is meant to coordinate efforts across state agencies and partner with local leaders to reduce violence and firearm misuse in the state.
It offers technical assistance, along with training and best practices to police departments and other local agencies.
It’s one way the state says it’s trying to address gun violence. Last month, the Governor’s Crime Commission announced $750,000 in funding to expand hospital-based violence prevention programs.
Several communities in North Carolina have their own community violence intervention program, including Durham.
On the federal level, the White House also established a new office: the first ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
It was announced in September. The new office is set to focus on implementing executive and legislative action to combat the nation’s gun violence epidemic.
Vice President Kamala Harris will oversee the new office.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 13 thousand Americans are killed on average each year by firearms, which includes an alarming number within schools.
Education Week tracks school shootings. They say since 2018, there have been 180 K-12 school shootings with casualties – 121 dead, 316 injured.
But when it comes to colleges and universities, research on shootings that occur on campuses is limited.
According to the crowd-sourced Gun Violence Archive, since March of last year, there have been at least 24 documented gun-related homicides on college campuses.
School shootings outside the U.S. are exceptionally rare. The U.S. has 57 times as many school shootings as all other developed countries combined.