The experts are leading the COVID-19 fight. Where is our Fauci for KC’s gun violence?

I am struck by the response of my community to this awful public health crisis of COVID-19 that has swept into our conscience. The measures we have undertaken to combat this disease are painful, difficult and oddly — un-American.

We are not working harder; we are working more responsibly. We are not attacking this problem with the outward gusto I so appreciate about Americans. This time, we are literally watching more TV, taking walks and eating around our kitchen tables again. It is saving lives. We are watching the flattening of the curve because of our (in)actions.

It takes my breath away thinking about the toll this has taken on so many. Small businesses do not know if they will make it. They do not know if they can survive the cure for this public health crisis. They are taking steps that are in the best interest of the community, for people they don’t know. It is nothing short of selfless. I am awestruck by their sacrifice.

But what about another public health crisis that has killed more people since the first days of this pandemic? That crisis is gun violence — and we’ve been living with it now for a half century. That’s time enough to have poured vast amounts of money and resources into more education and attention to this public health emergency that has taken the lives of thousands of Americans. Yet this epidemic of gun violence continues, year after year.

I’m not picking on guns themselves — but it is also impossible to ignore their role in this crisis. The loved ones of homicide victims feel no less agony if the means of death is a knife or a rock. The tool, however, should be of interest from a public health and policy perspective because so, so often the tool used to kill is a gun.

Flatly, no one can credibly argue that guns are not the most popular tool for committing acts of violence. They are efficient — so efficient that 38 of 42 homicides in Kansas City as of April 19 involved a victim killed by a gunshot. That’s nearly 91%, and that’s not an unusual number for 2020. The numbers are that overwhelming nearly every year. Isn’t it about time (especially now having learned the lessons of COVID-19) to respond to this decades-long crisis of gun violence from a public health perspective?

Misguided instincts came within a hairsbreadth of driving a smart, science-led response to COVID-19 into the abyss of nonsense. But then came Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Ignoring scientific experts hurt our early efforts to address the pandemic of 2020, and ignoring science continues to threaten our response. Ignoring the experts, the scientists, about COVID-19 comes with great peril. Trust the experts and apply the medicine as directed, even if it is not intuitive to many.

Those lessons apply to local leaders, especially when it comes to gun violence. We must not dismiss the experts here, either. Public health officials’ and criminologists’ knowledge should guide our efforts. We must empower those who have spent their lives studying this issue to teach us how to respond. In short, embrace the experts.

So when it comes to the crisis of gun violence, where is our Fauci? Where is the science that will replace our worst instincts on gun violence? Where is the knowledge and research for this crisis? Will we learn the role race plays, and how disparities further impact this problem? Will the experts guide us away from tired notions about certain people or neighborhoods? What is the medicine for this epidemic? Will those lacking a science background or those who have not taken the time really to study the facts argue with the public health experts about the medicine?

National Crime Victims’ Rights Week just concluded, and I find my heart aching, knowing the toll of anguish caused by more deaths in my community. They keep coming even during a pandemic. I know that I will meet these families and that I will ask for the impossible: their trust, patience and possibly their grace to help them along this path.

Admittedly, I am frustrated and angry as I watch the death toll rise. But maybe COVID-19 is an opportunity to address another long-standing crisis in a new way — where simple answers are not sought out through our worst instincts, or political taglines or old notions of race, but instead by scientists. It is time for these experts to take center stage.

It’s time we follow them. It’s time this community demands that their local officials embrace the science on this epidemic.

Jean Peters Baker is Jackson County Prosecutor.

This story was originally published April 26, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "The experts are leading the COVID-19 fight. Where is our Fauci for KC’s gun violence?."