Florida Priorities Summit: What can be done to reduce gun deaths in Florida?

Should Florida ban assault weapons? Increase funding for mental health and education programs? Strip politics from the discussion altogether?

Those were among the questions tackled during a panel discussion on gun violence at the University of Miami on Wednesday as part of the Florida Priorities Summit. The two-day event, which features panel discussions on issues like the Florida recount, environmental challenges affecting the state and healthcare, is the culmination of the Florida Influencer Series, a project by the Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and Bradenton Herald.

Over the last several months, statewide Influencers — each a leader in different strata of Florida’s landscape of ideas — shared their own ideas on the most important issues facing the state and responded to questions from readers.

On the multifaceted and often contentious issue of gun violence, a 5-person panel moderated by WLRN social issues reporter Nadege Green discussed the best solutions to reduce gun deaths and promote a safer Florida. The panel included local hip-hop legend and social activist Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell; Megan Hobson, a survivor of gun violence; Jon Mills, an attorney with Boies Schiller Flexner; and Bob McClure, the president and CEO of the James Madison Institute in Tallahassee.

“Well over half of the gun deaths in this country I would argue reflect much of the mental health issue,” McClure said. “I think the state of Florida needs to look at the mental health aspect, flagging those who have mental health problems.”

He also stressed that violence-plagued communities needed hope, job opportunities and better education to help combat senseless killings in a non-partisan way.

Campbell agreed, emphasizing the importance of banding together as Miamians to help communities most affected by the issue, like Liberty City, Overtown or Miami Gardens to name just a few.

“If people in this room right here put the pressure on the state attorney, the police chief and the mayors in these different areas, it’ll change,” he said. “But when it comes from us, it falls on deaf ears.”

Mills, who is in favor of adding a ballot initiative to the 2020 election in Florida to potentially ban assault weapons, said that because gun violence is such an unwieldy issue to many, focusing on a single part of it at a time can be helpful.

“I think it can work,” he said. “I think assault weapons is one of the issues...people can get behind.”

Hobson, who has worked with children affected by gun violence, said it was important to hear the perspectives of a variety of people, not just those with the resources to speak out. Recently, she visited fourth and fifth graders at a grade school in Liberty City who all said they knew family members or close friends had been shot or affected by gun violence.

One of the kids wanted to plan a march, similar to the one organized by high school students from Parkland after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February.

Hobson asked why.

“We’re the ones getting shot,” the child said.

This story was originally published November 14, 2018 at 4:27 PM.