By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
Baltimore City Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) and several of the community violence intervention ecosystem partners gathered at a resource fair and free gun lock distribution event on June 9 at Mondawmin Mall in honor of Gun Violence Awareness Month.
“As we mark National Gun Violence Awareness Month, my office, BPD (Baltimore Police Department), our hospital partners, everyone you see here today are recommitting ourselves to the critically important work of preventing gun violence across Baltimore,” said Scott at the event. “We promise to do more and to do better with our community.”
Scott highlighted the progress made in Baltimore regarding homicides in recent years. In 2023, homicides declined by 20 percent and by 23 percent in 2024. Thus far in 2025, homicides have been reduced by an additional 23.6 percent.
As of June 11, there have been 59 homicides and 133 nonfatal shootings in Baltimore City, according to BPD.
The day was aimed at mitigating the root causes of gun violence that negatively impact Baltimore communities including easy access to unsecured firearms.
“We lost a 10 year old earlier this year because she got access to a firearm in the home,” said Scott.
On Jan. 25, E’vaa Sewell got access to her grandmother’s, Alethea Mitchell, unsecured firearm and accidentally shot herself. She was taken to a local hospital, where she was treated until she died on Jan. 28.
The grandmother, 51, has since been charged with firearm access by a minor, firearm possession with a felony conviction, possession of a stolen firearm and various other handgun-related charges.
According to the mayor’s office, around 4.6 million children in the U.S. live in a home with at least one unsecured and loaded firearm.
Kevin W. Sowers, president of the Johns Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, highlighted that in 2022, 48,000 people died from gun violence according to the CDC.
“That’s one person in every 11 minutes, seven children a day,” said Sowers. “The leading cause of death for children in this country has become gun violence.”
According to a report by KFF, a health policy research organization, Black youth are significantly more likely than their White counterparts to be harmed by or exposed to gun violence. In 2023, the firearm death rate among Black youth was 11.7 per 100,000 – more than four times that of White children and significantly higher than other racial and ethnic groups.
Participants had access to free cable gun locks, information on how to secure firearms, violence prevention resources and various wraparound services such as Pathways to Advocacy Against Violence Everyday (P.A.A.V.E.), a LifeBridge Health Group Center for Hope program that provides trauma-centered services to Baltimore residents.
Over 150 Baltimore residents came out to the event and more than 275 gun locks were distributed.
The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE), Johns Hopkins Health System, University of Maryland Medical System, University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), LifeBridge Health are expected to hold more free gun lock box distributions through the summer. Further information will be posted on MONSE’s website at monse.baltimorecity.gov/violence-prevention-events.
For more information on how to securely store a firearm, visit BeSMARTforkids.org.