He Said, “I’m Addicted To Shooting People”

By Terrance Afer-Anderson

Columnist

In the twenty-some years since I heard a young, incarcerated African-American male utter the words, “I’m addicted to shooting people,” my emotions have consistently evolved. Initially, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Then, in visiting his cellblock a week later, I felt the slightest bit of compassion, as I took note of his body language, when I shared my own words.

I had asked him to write something from the perspective of a bullet he used to shoot someone. He refused. So, I felt I would provide such a voice in a poem. It was entitled “A Bullet for a God.” When I finished reading it, I could see it had really rattled him. He fell completely silent, as his spirit, which had previously enveloped a brazen, boastful energy, appeared to have collapsed, his entire posture doing the same.

Admittedly, I was initially stunned at his utterance of those dreadful words. Then, I pondered if in doing so, he was actually seeking help. I never found out. As I recall, his silence endured throughout my subsequent visits

But now, I feel outrage. Not so much for his story alone, but for the epidemic of gun violence assailing young African-American men and women, and numerous Black communities.

The Brady United Against Gun Violence Foundation reports, “Despite accounting for only 14 percent of the U.S. population, Black people account for 60 percent of those killed by firearm homicide each year.” They add, “On average, Black people are over 11.5 times more likely to be victims of firearm homicide than their non-Hispanic white peers.”

The Center for American Progress reports, “Young Black Americans, ages 15 to 34, experience the highest rates of gun homicides across all demographics.” They also note that, “Black women are twice as likely as White women to be fatally shot by an intimate partner,” and add, “Guns are used in more than half of all homicides of women and are disproportionately used against Black women.”

As disturbing as these statistics are, I am hopeful that even greater alarm is realized by the daily television news reports, expressly chronicling how gun violence has assumed the posture of a rabid epidemic assailing Black communities. When viewed in totality, punctuated by the staggering rates of frequency, it is as though all these Black deaths are being done via an endless armory of automatic weapons, rather than the cheaper handguns most often used by Black perpetrators of gun violence.

I am just as alarmed of course by the number of mass shootings occurring in the U.S. The Rockefeller Institute of Government reports that there were 441 mass shootings in the U.S. between 1966 and 2022. It also notes that, while there were only 12 mass shootings from 1966 to 1975, there was a staggering 170 such events in the 9 years, between 2013 and 2022. That’s quite a disarming escalation, an average of 18 mass shootings each year. The Institute further notes that 54.1 percent of these perpetrators are White.

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I ask that you ponder if the overall magnitude, and frequency, of gun deaths in African-American communities resembles the incidence of mass shootings in the country. I suggest, in total numbers killed, it also wreaks of the devastating massacres of Black residents in U.S. towns like Tulsa, Oklahoma; Rosewood, Florida; Elaine, Arkansas; Colfax, Louisiana; and Clinton, Mississippi.

As much as those horrific events break my heart, especially as they were designed to eradicate Black people from American soil and were carried out by the descendants of people who brought Africans here in the first place, I find myself even more enraged by Black murders committed by Black people. They are executing the desires of extremists who have unfettered fantasies about African-American genocide. It is a pathetic illustration of how utter ignorance and abject disregard for human life can wreak fatalities on an epic scale. Self-inflicted wounds that assail entire communities are tantamount to communal suicide.

Perhaps the sad, young African-American man who, two decades past, told me “I’m addicted to shooting people,” was uttering a desperate, clarion call for help. Perhaps, he found himself immersed in attempts to vicariously rid his soul of torment, by inflicting violence on people who looked like him, whom he assumed had the same wretched portions in life as he, that his life, like their own, had little value.

If so, how do you reach someone so desperately traumatized by their mere existence, and the increasing horde of young men like him, who are eradicating themselves and others in our communities?

It demands daring, fervent education by a corps of community activists committed to enlightening that horde that such gun violence makes them agents of all who despise, disdain and dismiss Black people. There are a number of local Hampton Roads gun violence prevention groups wholly convicted to that mission. We must support them in that effort.

As an artist, I am attempting to provide a measure of such support, by working with an all-volunteer team of other artists who share my concern. We are pulling together a short film, entitled “Chamber Made,” that expressly targets young African-American men wedded to gun violence. It would appear, however, that the Devil has repeatedly pulled the trigger on the project, frequently wounding our efforts. It has taken us two years thus far, but we will get it done. Here is a link to a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8na8r-vL7w&t=32s Stay tuned!

Terrance Afer-Anderson is a writer, actor, director and producer. He is also President/CEO, TerraVizion Entertainment Network.