31 Jul PCUN calls on our government leaders to engage in meaningful dialogue, enact policies, and allocate resources that address the underlying factors contributing to gun violence.

PCUN Statement

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Contact: Patti Verduzco 503-754-5547, pattiverduzco@pcun.org

PCUN calls on our government leaders to engage in meaningful dialogue, enact policies, and allocate resources that address the underlying factors contributing to gun violence.

WOODBURN, Ore.—Everyone deserves to feel safe in our community. Recent gun violence in Salem has impacted that ability to feel safe. While we are filled with grief, we are also filled with determination. This violence is preventable, and it is our responsibility to ensure these incidents come to a firm and permanent stop. To prevent future incidents, we must focus on the root causes of gun violence and work together to end them.

“Our Salem community has been devastated by these recent events; it’s critical that community leaders make a serious effort to understand the root causes. Decades of underinvestment in our community-based organizations, economic development, housing, and neighborhood programs have resulted in a city that desperately needs its government and residents to take action. We demand significant investments to strengthen our communities.” Reyna Lopez, Executive Director of PCUN

Gun Violence has been named a public health epidemic by The Education Fund to Stop Gun Violence and, therefore, is a health crisis and should be responded to as one. The US Department of Health and Human Services states that the Social Determinants of Health are,

•Economic Stability
•Education Access and Quality
•Health Care Access and Quality
•Neighborhood and Built Environment
•Social and Community Context

We must focus on these five pillars of health to end this epidemic. Punishment is not prevention. Increasing police presence will not stabilize housing, metal detectors will not improve the quality of our education system, and fences will not improve access to healthcare. Our community deserves solutions based on fact rather than fear.

Levi Herrera-Lopez: “Growing up in Salem in the 1990’s, my family and my community saw firsthand the impacts of over-policing in NE Salem Latinx communities. This resulted in racial profiling.”

Our vulnerable communities face incarceration at higher rates than other demographics. We know they do not commit more crimes than everyone else, yet suffer punishment at higher rates. When our states respond to these events with punishment, vulnerable communities pay the price. This hurts our social determinants of health, the problem grows, and the cycle continues. We call on our communities to come together and end this cycle so we can all feel safe in our communities once more.

Jaime Arredondo, Capaces Leadership Institute, said, “Today, more than half of children in Salem-Keizer elementary schools are Latinx/a/o/e. This is the future; it is time our actions match our words. Children deserve love and respect. We can do that by building a plan in Salem that will heal our communities while building real programs in partnership with Black and Indigenous communities of color in Salem. This can help transform Salem.”

PCUN calls on our local, state, and federal governments to work with us to create lasting policy and long-term investments to ending gun violence with evidence-backed solutions.

•Police in Schools (School Resource Officers) should be replaced with Culturally and Gender-Affirming Counselors, Social Workers, and Nurses.
•Replace an increase in Police Patrols with a Mobile Crisis Intervention Program (like CAHOOTS)
•Replace hostile architecture with publicly funded third spaces accessible to ALL people.

These programs only work when funded. We call on the State of Oregon to seriously consider a wealth tax to permanently fund these programs and increase overall funding to cities across our state, which is strapped for the resources to address these problems adequately. We are beyond patchwork solutions. We must get serious about permanent change now or watch more of our children die because we made policy out of fear rather than fact.

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