CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Researchers at the University of Virginia released a new report titled “In Their Own Voices: How fear & social media lead to youth and community gun violence in post-COVID Virginia.”

With 58 interviews with young people and those who work with them, the report analyzed the impact of factors including mental health, social media and post-pandemic instability on young people, and focused on the question, “How can we — the adults — make sure that all young people in every community in Virginia feel safe enough that they stop believing they need to carry a gun to protect themselves?”

“This report highlights how, in a small number of communities in Virginia, some youth, especially youth of color, carry guns and experience a disproportionate number of gun deaths that are driven by person-to-person shootings in their own neighborhoods,” the six authors wrote in the 71-page document.

The report finds that youth often carried guns out of fear or feeling a lack of safety and easy access, and that the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the influence of social media have led to an uptick in violence.

“The short story is that while much of Virginia likely experiences one reality—the pandemic is mostly over, young people feel safe on the streets, and schools are robustly attended—a handful of communities experience the opposite,” the authors wrote.

In their research, the team focused on the areas of Virginia most impacted by gun violence, like Richmond, Roanoke and the Tidewater, among others.  It also gives recommendations on policy changes designed to decrease gun violence to state and local leaders.

Dr. Andrew Block, lead writer on the report and a professor in UVA’s School of Law, previously worked as the director of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice from 2014-19. There, he frequently interacted with mostly young men who were often in legal trouble because in part, carrying and using weapons.

“A lot of them talked about carrying guns because they were scared,” he said on a media call. “They were scared because something would happen from the gang they wanted to be in or they were scared because someone would come after them. And that fear impacted their actions in a lot of different ways.”

His experiences with the department led him to develop an interest in the relationship between safety and violence, and after securing funding from Spring Point Partners, a social impact organization, Block recruited a research team and set out to explore this relationship.

Their research found that fear and mental health issues were common reason cited by young people as to why many still felt the need to carry a gun with them. These issues were compounded by the lack of a trusted adult in many of their lives.

“We’re in a day and age where, for whatever reason, young people feel less heard,” author and youth development strategist Trae Watkins said. “They often said that. They didn’t feel like adults took them seriously and they felt like they have a voice. They have a lot to say, but they didn’t feel like adults often were interested in what they had to say.”

Social media was also often cited as a cause of youth gun violence. Col. Stephen Jenkins, who serves as the Chief of Police in Portsmouth, was on the call and said social media is “a driving factor” when it comes to violence and tension in the community.

“If a young person is assaulted and gets involved in a fight and it gets filmed,” he said, “that’s captured, and it’s played over and over and over again … Living that assault over and over again only breeds that somehow, someway, I have to redeem myself in the eyes of others, and so you do look for opportunities to do that.”

The final section of the report focused on policy recommendations, with most directed toward the state and local level as well as law enforcement. Their recommendations focused on providing resources to the communities that need it and limiting access to social media, as well as guns themselves.

Jenkins said his agency has already begun to implement similar policies to those found in the report, including fostering relationships with community partners like mental health providers and after school programs.

Block said the report has received support from state and local leaders so far, and while the new administration in the state’s executive branch is still in the process of its transition, the report has been sent to the transition teams for the Governor and Attorney General. He added that one of the report’s “virtues” is its numerous recommendations for local governments and law enforcement, which he hopes will give multiple opportunities to garner feedback and showcase the recommendations in action.

“What the Chief is doing in Portsmouth or what folks are trying to do here in Charlottesville hopefully will just lift up the importance of these,” he said, “so that other police departments that maybe aren’t doing this or maybe other communities that aren’t doing this work get involved.”