ARTIST STATEMENT:
This work is about my experiences living in Chicago, Illinois. A city that is often related to gun violence. When I look at the news I realized that I only saw people that looked like me around guns that were criminals, but people of other races were depicted as cowboys and farmers. I became curious as to why this injustice-inbalance existed. I set out to create a documentation of my unique experience and one that is rarely shown.
I am creating this archive to expand the image of Black American gun ownership. When we examine history, we see that when African Americans fight for gun rights, legislation is swiftly passed against it. In 1967, the Mulford Act was introduced to target members of the Black Panthers. The members had been conducting neighborhood armed patrols they said were meant to protect Black communities from police brutality.
I want to show how gun ownership, in urban communities are symptoms of bad policies and lack of resourcing rather than an obsession with guns. The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence supports this claim. Its research concludes that the root cause of gun violence is poverty and lack of opportunity, among other factors.
"There is a higher crime rate when people cannot work and earn," says Chicago resident Angela Ross Williams. The 67-year-old became a gun owner out of necessity to protect herself from crime in the city. Angela says that she's experienced slow police response times, which has lowered her trust in local law enforcement to protect her against crime.