Activist targets gun violence in Missouri

Missouri is among the deadliest states for gun violence in the U.S. Cape Girardeau County is among the deadliest counties in Missouri for gun violence, per capita.

According to a report from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce titled "Safer Missouri Stronger Missouri," the Show Me State was fourth in the nation in gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2020. Missouri also had the highest rate of gun deaths among Black people in 2020. From 2000 to 2019 the violent crime rate in the country fell 24.8%. During that same span, Missouri's rose 2%.

The violence is simply sequestered in the sprawling metropolitan areas in the state. Cape Girardeau County is one of 19 -- out of a total 114 -- counties in Missouri to average four or more gun deaths per 1,000 people in 2020.

"I'm just fed up with all of it, just the way people hate each other," Leslie Washington said of gun violence in Cape Girardeau, the state and the nation as a whole.

Washington is a domestic violence survivor who was threatened with a loaded gun by her ex-husband. According to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, a woman is five times more likely to be murdered when her abuser has access to a gun.

One of Washington's family members committed suicide with a firearm; another was the victim of a homicide that remains unsolved.

The advocate said she wants to make sure to lift up other survivors and make sure people hear their stories.

"It's important to amplify those voices and to get that awareness and information out there," Washington said.

Washington and others in the Southeast Missouri Chapter of Moms Demand Action -- a national anti-gun violence activist organization -- will mark Nation Gun Violence Survivors Week the first week of February. Washington will give a presentation at noon Wednesday, Feb. 1, in the University Center at Southeast Missouri State University.

"People need to realize when there's gun violence in the community, it doesn't only affect the family and friends of that individual," Washington said. "It affects the community as a whole."

Many communities in the country have already been stunned with violence in the first month of 2023. Since Jan. 1 there have been 39 shootings in which for or more people have been killed or injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Washington said she doesn't believe in taking away guns from responsible gun owners but making sure the "bad people" don't have access. She pointed to the "boyfriend loophole" which was closed by national legislation last year. The loophole allowed dating partners convicted of domestic abuse the ability to purchase firearms, while married partners were banned from making such purchases.

Despite some of the strides made for safer gun laws, Washington said she feels many leaders -- including in the White House -- have failed to be "proactive" in stopping the violence.

She said she hopes to push leaders to reverse that trend as the legislative lead for Moms Demand Action in Missouri. Herself and others will visit Jefferson City, Missouri, during Advocacy Day in March to speak with Missouri politicians about what they can do to curb the violence.