Birmingham's Record Breaking Gang Violence

For most, Birmingham is a bright, peaceful place to live, work, raise a family and prosper. But, to some Birmingham is the home to daily fear and sadness. 2022 was Birmingham’s deadliest year in almost 90 years! There were 152 reported homicides in Birmingham last year, beating the former record of 148 slayings in 1933.

Birmingham Homicide Stats

• 12.7 homicides per month

• 1 homicide every 2.4 days

• Homicide rate of 72.9 per 100,000 people

• Longest stretch without a homicide was 14 days

• 131 of the deaths involved guns

• Estimated 79 homicides were gang related (37 homicides haven’t been publicized)

• The youngest victim was 3, the oldest was 83

• There have been 36 homicides so far in 2023 (on pace for 131 homicides)

Why is this happening?

As a person that loves Birmingham and wants to see the city grow, the first thing I wanted to know was why this is happening. The first part of this tragic problem involves the recent legislation to make Alabama a ‘permit-less’ carry state. You can now carry a firearm without a permit that requires a background check. I am a big supporter of the second amendment and I’m not saying I don’t agree with the new legislation, but this change is definitely going to have an impact on the violence in the already violent parts of the city. Giving criminals legal access to deadly weapons seems like a pretty easy cause and effect to figure out.

Some of the homicides were accidents and others were car crashes and other tragic events, but the vast majority were men killing other men that they knew or knew of in a string of back and forth retaliation shootings. It’s very difficult to know how this stuff gets started but one of the gangs that inhabits Birmingham does something, whether on purpose or accident, and the other gang must retaliate or their gang loses credibility as an intimidating organization.

In 2022, there was one weekend where 5 people were murdered in gang related shootings. It was such a desperate time that the Mayor of Birmingham, Randall Woodfin, called out to the family members, past members, members in prison and anybody who could help to relay the message to the gangs to please put the guns down.

There are a number of gangs in Birmingham and it’s hard to say the exact amount or know how many members are in each organization but they include some of the following:

• H2K

• 6500 boys

• 420

• TMSG

• CPMG

• Gangster Disciples

• Bloods

• Crips

• Vice Lords

• 62

• Brims Bloods

With so many different gangs living in one city it’s not surprising that once one shooting happens the retaliations quickly pile up and it gets to an overwhelming amount of murders.

Most people that live in Birmingham are not aware of this issue because it’s not happening in their side of town. If you haven’t looked up Birmingham Gangs on Youtube, I highly recommend checking it out here:

We’re all ONE city and when this violence occurs anywhere in Birmingham it’s up to all of us to feel that pain and look for solutions. The police are overwhelmed with crime in these parts of the city and government officials are searching everyday for what they can do.

How do we solve this Birmingham?

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