12 minute read
NEWS
Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval speaks during an event in June.
PHOTO: CITY OF CINCINNATI
Cincinnati Mayor on Gun Massacres: State Leaders Stand in the Way of Action
BY ALLISON BABKA
Mayors of big cities across the United States – including Cincinnati – are pleading with state and federal o cials to nally address the onslaught of gun violence throughout the country.
Just days after yet another violent shooting, o cials met at the annual United States Conference of Mayors in Reno to determine what, if anything, could be done about the massacres. But one of the big problems, they say, is that state legislators – particularly in Republican-controlled states like Ohio – prevent even modest gun-control or violence-reduction proposals from going to a vote or even getting discussion, or they actively pass measures that block local governments from passing their own safety laws.
Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval was in Reno for the conference, which ran June 3-6.
“We’re doing everything we can at the local level, partnering with the Department of Justice, ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) with our local law enforcement to prevent the importation of illegal guns,” Pureval tells Steve Inskeep, host of NPR’s Morning Edition, in an interview released June 7. “But the fact of the matter is there are now more guns than people in our country, and it’s creating an arms race where people don’t feel safe unless they have a gun. So guns beget more guns, which unfortunately makes us all unsafe.”
A rise in gun ownership and violence
In 2000, there were three activeshooter, multiple-victim incidents in the United States; in 2020, there were 40, data shows. And in 2020, rearms were the leading cause of death for children throughout the nation.
Small Arms Survey, a research project in Switzerland, estimates that there are 390 million guns circulating around the globe. It also estimates that the United States has about 120.5 rearms per 100 residents. e country next on the list is con ict-ridden Yemen, which has “just” 52.8 rearms per 100 people.
Gun murders continue to climb throughout the United States. “ e 19,384 gun murders that took place in 2020 were the most since at least 1968, exceeding the previous peak of 18,253 recorded by the CDC in 1993. e 2020 total represented a 34% increase from the year before, a 49% increase over ve years and a 75% increase over 10 years,” Pew Research Center says. And research from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention shows that 79% of homicides in the United States in 2020 were performed with guns. at’s again higher than anywhere else in the world, with Canada at 37% and Australia at 13%.
In Ohio, nearly 1,800 residents died via rearms in 2021 – almost as many as in 2020, the state’s reigning record year.
Citing Cincinnati’s new program that sends mental health professionals and paramedics instead of police to certain types of non-violent 911 calls as well as the Cincinnati Police Department’s new Crime Gun Intelligence Center, Pureval says local leaders in the Queen City and others are trying to nd solutions to mass violence but feel stymied.
“We are not powerless to do anything about gun violence,” Prevail tells Inskeep on Morning Edition. “But when we’re talking speci cally gun control, local leaders are preempted by their state houses or by the federal government and really don’t have very many tools to manage the accessibility of guns.”
Research by the New York Times shows that a number of mass shootings could have been prevented or caused fewer deaths and injuries had better laws and background checks been in place in states and federally.
On the federal level, Democrats and Republican Senators have been discussing how to control access to weapons – or at least to better understand who is buying them – but Republicans have indicated they’re not interested in raising the age at which someone can buy a rearm. Currently, 18-year-olds can legally purchase “long guns” like ri es, while they must wait until age 21 to buy handguns. But many rules go out the window when it comes to purchases at gun shows or from family (as of press time, a bi-partisan group of legislators had developed the initial framework for a bill that may close some questionable gun-purchase practices).
In Ohio, Republicans passed a bill that would allow boards of education to permit teachers to carry rearms in schools. Gov. Mike DeWine signed the legislation on June 13, even though teachers overwhelmingly are against it, particularly in schools with large populations of non-white students. Teachers also are concerned about being able to safely store the guns and for the potential for even more violence on campus.
DeWine has repeatedly supported gun protections.
“In 2019, an hour north of here in Dayton, Ohio, a gunman opened re and in 32 seconds murdered nine people and injured 27. It was a shocking tragedy of gun violence. At that time, leaders from the state, from the federal government came to Dayton and promised action,” Pureval says. “But in the three years since the tragedy in Dayton, not only have our state leaders signed into law a permitless concealed carry law in opposition of law enforcement, but also have signed “Stand Your Ground” and also now is on the verge of passing a resolution which would create more guns in our schools by arming our teachers. Instead of doing something about gun violence, unfortunately our state leaders have taken us in the opposite direction.”
Dayton Mayor Je rey J. Mims Jr. remembers the massacre in his city well. In a June 6 article from the New York Times, Mims – who, like Pureval, had attended the Conference of Mayors and is a Democrat – says that he had hoped things would change after DeWine and other leaders visited Dayton and saw the community pleading for action. He remembers DeWine proposing a “red ag bill” that would allow police to take guns from owners who are deemed “dangerous.”
“We say, OK, maybe this will make a di erence so these folks will not have died in vain,” Mims tells New York Times writer Mitch Smith.
But Ohio Republicans did not pass the law, and DeWine dropped the issue.
Nan Whaley, who was Dayton’s mayor at the time of the shooting and is now running against DeWine for Ohio’s governor seat, recently told CityBeat that DeWine has not taken any action.
“Mike DeWine is afraid of extremists, is unwilling to do what needs to be done to keep communities safe,” Whaley says. “Unfortunately, it’s not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when’ this [mass shootings] happens again in Ohio. Mike DeWine can give his thoughts and prayers and put the ag at half-sta and do all kinds of bullshit action, but the fact of the matter is, when it was time to do something, he cowardly went to the back and let extremists run the state.”
Pureval says that throughout the country, the main issues are “universal accessibility” to guns and “the inability to resolve di erences peacefully” and that Ohio lawmakers are not addressing those.
“All of the measures in Columbus are doing nothing to mitigate or interrupt the accessibility of guns, but rather making access to guns more [easy]. So there is a fundamental disconnect between the problem on our streets and the solutions being advocated at the federal and state level,” Pureval says.
Pureval says mayors are taking action locally, but U.S. Senators need to address the issue as a country. Comparatively, the United States’ northern neighbor Canada is moving toward a ban on importing, buying or selling guns.
“ e situation is as serious as it can be. It’s not just Cincinnati; it’s a challenge all across our country, which is why we are so in desperate need of federal action,” he tells NPR. “Mayors across the country just met at the U.S. Conference of Mayors – Republicans and Democrats – 250 of us in the United States are pleading that the Senate does something to start mitigating this problem.”
“I am optimistic that at a certain point, people are going to look around and be shocked into action,” he tells the New York Times in a separate interview. “I’m surprised we’re not there yet.”
George Clooney’s Documentary on Ohio State University Sexual Abuse Scandal Lands at HBO
BY VINCE GRZEGOREK, MAIJA ZUMMO AND ALLISON BABKA
HBO has grabbed the rights to George Clooney’s documentary about the Richard Strauss sexual abuse scandal at Ohio State University. e doc is being produced by Clooney – who attended Mason schools as a youth – and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures in partnership with Sports Illustrated Studios and 101 Studios. Eva Orner, an Oscar winner, has signed on to direct. e documentary, based on the October 2020 Sports Illustrated feature by Jon Wertheim, will take a deep look at Strauss’s abuse of hundreds of victims from 1978 to 1998, a scandal that continues to reverberate in Columbus and nationally. Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, who was an assistant coach on the college’s wrestling team, has repeatedly been accused of ignoring Strauss’s behavior.
“Grant and I are very proud to be working on this project with HBO,” Clooney said in a statement. “It’s a devastating story about people in power abusing and then covering up their criminal actions against students. e fact that it hasn’t been resolved as of yet is deeply disturbing.”
In 2019, OSU released the ndings of an investigation undertaken by a private law rm hired by the university, sharing that Strauss had abused at least 177 men during his tenure at the school. What’s more, school leaders at the time knew about the abuse, the report states.
Strauss abused athletes playing at least 16 sports at the university plus others who attended a campus health center and an o -campus clinic between 1979 and 1997, according to the investigation. Strauss was employed at OSU from 1978 to 1998.
“ e report concludes that university personnel at the time had knowledge of complaints and concerns about Strauss’ conduct as early as 1979 but failed to investigate or act meaningfully,” a 2019 statement from OSU read. “In 1996, Ohio State removed Strauss from his role as a physician in both the Department of Athletics and Student Health Services. His actions were reported to the State Medical Board of Ohio that same year. e report found that the university failed to report Strauss’ conduct to law enforcement. He was allowed to voluntarily retire in 1998 with emeritus status.”
Strauss died by suicide in 2005.
On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with the news that enslaved African-Americans were now free and that the Civil War had nally ended — two and a half years after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Festivities ensued. And now more than 150 years later, June 19 or “Juneteenth” is a nationally celebrated holiday honoring the end of chattel slavery in the United States, as well as the continued ght for equality.
In 2021, Juneteenth became a federally recognized holiday. And this year, there are numerous events in the Cincinnati area – from parades and block parties to intimate discussions and historical remembrances – to celebrate the complexity and importance of Juneteenth.
Here’s a small sampling of what’s coming up:
Juneteenth Flag Raising in Norwood and Elsewhere
e city of Norwood will hold its rst city-wide Juneteenth celebration that includes Jazz in the Park and Sound the Alarm, plus a ag raising, a paint-andsip event and a pool party. (Cincinnati, Hamilton County and other local jurisdictions also are scheduling ag raisings and celebrations this month.) June 17-18 in Norwood. norwoodohio. gov. (Lindsay Wielonski)
Juneteenth Celebration at Findlay Market
Findlay Market ‘s Juneteenth weekend will kick o on June 17 with a celebration at Jane’s, featuring live music and drinks. On June 18, Kai Stoudemire-Williams, founder of the “Black is Excellence” campaign, will lead a panel discussion at e Columns alongside Tim Barr, Alice Frazier, Paul Booth Sr. and Adoria Maxberry to discuss the history and importance of the holiday. On June 19, there will be a ticketed tasting event featuring local Black-owned businesses. June 17-19. Free admission, but tasting tickets start at $10. 1801 Race Street, Over-the-Rhine. ndlaymarket.org. (LW)
Juneteenth Festival at Eden Park
Juneteenth Cincinnati began its annual Juneteenth Festival in 1988 and recognizes the conclusion of chattel slavery as well as the ongoing
The Juneteenth ag ies outside Cincinnati City Hall in 2020.
PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER
di culties and discrimination still facing Black Americans. e festival will include live music along two stages, historical discussions, arts and food. Noon-9 p.m. June 18. Free admission. 950 Eden Park Dr., Walnut Hills/Mt. Adams, juneteenthcincinnati.org. (Lauren Serge)
Juneteenth Parade in Middletown
is year, Middletown will hold its rst Juneteenth parade. Hosted by Key Better Days Society, the parade will go through downtown Middletown and will end at Verity Parkway and Lafayette Avenue. 9-11:30 a.m. June 18. Main Street, Middletown, bit.ly/3b0glmD. (LS)
Young Black Genius Block Party at Ziegler Park
Sweet Sistah Splash will host a Young Black Genius Block Party for Juneteenth, celebrating Black culture speci cally among Black youth and business professionals. e celebration will include vendors, speakers, live music, food trucks and resources for entrepreneurship. 2-6 p.m. June 18. Free admission. 1322 Sycamore St., Downtown, facebook.com/SweetSistahSplash. (LS)
Father’s Day Concert at Eden Park
e Father’s Day concert, a tradition of the Cincinnati Juneteenth celebrations, provides a space for AfricanAmerican performers to present their talents. is year’s event will include a variety of music styles from several musical performers. 2-6 p.m. June 19. 600 Art Museum Dr., Walnut Hills/Mt. Adams, juneteenthcincinnati.org. (LS)
Juneteenth Parade in the West End
e Cincinnati O cial Juneteenth Parade will collaborate with Hands at Heal Homeless Organization, YourGo2Girl Youth Arts & Entertainment and the Juneteenth Cincinnati Festival to host its rst parade in the West End. Participants are encouraged to wear red, white and blue. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. June 20. West End, thecojp.com. (LW)
For more events, visit the Juneteenth Cincinnati website at juneteenthcincinnati.org.
