ABSTRACT
This is not my story alone. This is the story for countless Black men, women, and children. I wrote this chapter with heartfelt emotions, specifically related to the lived trauma of gun violence. I honor those lost to gun violence with this contribution and promise not to forget them within the coldness that can be packaged in police training, the practice and theory of policing, statistical analyses, research, and popular culture discourse. My personal case examples are included that reference not only police-involved gun deaths and community gun deaths but also suicide gun deaths and domestic gun deaths. While we engage as scholars, practitioners, activists, and survivors, the harms of guns should not be hidden from our writing, during lectures/training, or work, in general. These harms are real and transcending and are described here, not for a moment of academic rigor, but as an exercise of humanity.
