A Navy base put up a wall to ward off stray bullets. Locals say that’s not enough to solve gun violence – By Bracey Harris (NBC News) / June 18, 2023
Gulfport, Mississippi, has a far lower homicide rate than Jackson. But some neighborhoods have seen frequent gunfire, and residents say it takes a toll.
More than 20 shipping containers line the south side of a Navy base in Gulfport, Mississippi. They’re not there to transport goods, but instead stand as a silent marker of the gun violence afflicting the state’s second-largest city.
The hulking boxes were put in place last fall, after gunfire at a subsidized apartment complex across the street damaged five homes inside the Naval Construction Battalion Center; no one was hurt. The base responded by increasing patrols around its perimeter and making one of the most fortified areas of Gulfport even more so.
“The optics of that are very bad,” said John Whitfield, a pastor and the CEO of Climb CDC, a nearby nonprofit focusing on workforce development. “The practicality of it, I understand.”
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