UVA’s ER numbers show that over 100 people suffer gunshot wounds every year in our community. Since the COVID pandemic, gun violence has increased. Even with some significant declines in gun violence since 2023, our community sees more violence now than in the years before the pandemic. Thankfully, Charlottesville maintains a low homicide rate because UVA Hospital–the top level one trauma center in the state–sits at the heart of our city.
Many families report fears for their children’s safety when shootings occur near public parks and at community events, and many people’s homes, congregations, and businesses have been hit by stray bullets when shootings occur.
Reports from law enforcement show that the gun violence is increasingly involving younger people, and more dangerous weapons. On top of this, the community’s most impacted by the increased violence are also the communities that are the most overpoliced.
In other communities across the country, models like Group Violence Intervention (GVI) have been successfully implemented to create dramatic reductions in shootings. The model also works to do so in a way that does not use blanket enforcement of whole communities but rather provides targeted intervention at people who are at the most risk of being involved in violence.
At the 2026 Nehemiah Action, Charlottesville’s Police Chief and Commonwealth’s Attorney agreed to move forward with conducting a problem analysis as a first step towards possible implementation of such a model in Charlottesville.
We will be continuing to follow up on this commitment and working to push forward implementation of clear, evidence-based violence reduction strategies, when the analysis is complete