The gun homicide rate in Virginia between 2020 and 2024 was equal to the national average, according to a new report from Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Research Committee.
But more than a quarter of these gun-related homicides occurred in four Hampton Roads cities: Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News and Hampton.
Gun homicide rates have decreased in most of these cities from their pandemic-era peak in 2022, except for Newport News. There, gun homicides have increased by 18% over the last three years, the report stated.
The Virginia General Assembly passed a joint resolution in 2024 authorizing the study on how gun violence impacts the physical, mental and emotional health of communities across the state.
It found that gun violence survivors often experience lengthy recovery times and require costly treatment. Exposure to gun violence can cause mental health conditions like PTSD and anxiety among youth. Gun violence can affect the local economy by turning people away from the small businesses in the community. And it can make it harder for schools in these areas to recruit and retain teachers and staff.
The report linked most of the state’s gun violence to community violence. This type of violence is between a few people and takes place in a public space, said Tracey Smith, JLARC’s associate director and supervisor for the study.
“It's difficult to prevent, it's hard to predict, and it certainly creates risk for bystanders and others in the community who are not necessarily directly involved or directly targeted,” she said.
The report found that local solutions are most effective at reducing gun violence and can be buoyed by state resources.
Charles Crest with Stop the Violence 757 said gun violence touches every aspect of life in Hampton Roads.
“It's in Walmart, it’s in when we go shopping, churches, synagogues, hospitals,” he said, noting the gun violence trends in the study were “alarming” but not surprising.
“Education and awareness is something that, in these areas, is really lacking,” Crest said, referring to Portsmouth, Norfolk, Hampton and Newport News.
Stop the Violence 757 has an afterschool program, offers grief counseling for kids and visits schools to talk about gun violence and conflict resolution. Crest said he wishes they had more funding to do more.
“We don't get the assistance that's necessary,” Crest said. “We don't have enough boots on the ground.”
Something the JLARC team heard repeatedly from law enforcement officers was that “the state is not going to arrest its way out of gun violence,” Smith said.
Making sure police departments are properly trained and staffed is part of the solution, but so are locally-driven programs, she said.
Local cities have trained community members on violence interruption tactics, partnered with antiviolence organizations and started hospital-based programs.
But these local efforts tend to be limited in the communities and individuals they can reach, Smith said.
State funding can help fill in the gaps. Since 2021, Virginia has increased funds to support local gun violence reduction efforts by roughly $30 million. The state’s Office of Safer Communities oversees the three programs: Safer Communities, Firearm Violence Intervention and Prevention and Operation Ceasefire.
The cities most successful at reducing gun violence have used state funding to establish an office and hire staff dedicated to coordinating gun violence reduction programs, Smith said.
But not all cities have access to all of the state’s resources, she said. The state’s largest violence reduction program, Safer Communities, doesn’t provide funding for Newport News or Hampton.
And the study found that state funds aren’t necessarily distributed according to need. Newport News, for example, experienced higher rates of gun homicides than Roanoke City since 2020, but Roanoke receives 9% of state program funds, while Newport News receives 2%, according to the study.
The study recommended the General Assembly consider expanding access to violence reduction programs and increasing funding to localities with higher gun violence rates.
