Fired Up and Ready to Go
by Pastor Jackie L. Jackson
I am involved with the gun violence prevention movement as a Pastor, as an Everytown Survivor Fellow, as a Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America volunteer leader, and through my full-time job as a team member with the “Community Outreach Advocates” through the Office Human Relations for the City of Cincinnati.
The work I do is rooted in my personal experience with gun violence. In July of 1970, when I was just ten years old, my friend and I were shot by a neighbor while we were playing outside. He had just been released from a psychiatric hospital.
In a robbery attempt one night in 2007, my oldest son, Jackie L. Jackson the 2nd, was shot in his back with a shotgun in his car, outside of his house as he was coming home from a recording session at 3 AM.
Even with 36 slugs from a shotgun blast in his back, he was able to run two miles until he finally collapsed on the street corner, directly across the street from where I had been shot 37 years earlier.
On May 7, 2018, my 20-year-old great nephew Jermaine Johnson was murdered by gun violence at his aunt’s house, in a home invasion that also left his best friend a paraplegic.
From 2014–2018, ten of the homicides and shootings in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio have been my family members. Of the ten, two were under the age of 13 and one was under the age of six.
What do we all have in common besides being family? We all are victims of gun violence. Add in the work that I do daily, and I have all the incentive I need to be a part of this movement.
When I was introduced to Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, I was invited to speak at a meeting in 2017. I challenged the volunteers to join us at the Youth March for Peace on Linn Street in the West End, which is a high crime area. They showed up in numbers and not only marched, but engaged with the community like champions.
Because of the commitment shown by those Moms Demand Action volunteers to come into an unfamiliar community and spread the message about ending gun violence, I was hooked. So I joined Ohio chapter as the Faith Lead and now serve as a Survivor Membership Lead.
Outside of my volunteer work, I work in the five Cincinnati Police Districts, providing on-site counseling, conflict mediation, and ministering to the loved ones of shooting victims. It seems like almost every single day, we’re called on to console loved ones dealing with loss of family members by gun violence. Being on call 24-hours, we show up at crime scenes and stand face-to-face with death from gun violence and those affected by it too often.
As the District 3 North Coordinator, one my responsibilities is to organize anti-violence and educational events and. A few of the ways we achieve these goals are by attending and participating in community council meetings and working with community councils in each neighborhood in our districts to stay connected with the temperature and changing needs of that community. We also engage in conversations with the residents, business owners and other stakeholders in our district to find ways that we can partner with them in keeping the community safe.
Another way of achieving our goal, is to engage with people experiencing homelessness, drug dealers, people suffering from addiction, and street hustlers, to connect them with resources like rehabilitation, housing, education and life coaches to help them make life changes. All of this is done with the hope of decreasing the gun violence often associated with their lifestyles.
To say gun violence is a public health crisis that is shattering our communities is an understatement, but I have all the motivation needed to be fired up and ready to go.
Pastor Jackie L. Jackson is a member of the Everytown for Gun Safety Survivor Network.
