Marion County’s chief medical boss calls for gun safety and training

INDIANAPOLIS — Marion County Public Health Director and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Virginia Caine told FOX59 and CBS4 she’s not interested in arguing the second amendment or permitless carry when it comes to firearms in Indiana.

”I want to get away from the political aspects of guns,” Caine said. “This is about saving the lives of children.”

Armed with $2 million in boosted state funding in her 2025 budget, Caine is hoping to leverage additional resources from foundations and other organizations to spread a public health message of gun safety and training in order to reduce the danger firearms present to Marion County’s children.

”We’re having hospital systems such as Riley Hospital, Eskenazi Health, that are distributing gun locks as patients and families come in,” Caine said. ”I would love to see if we could figure out some kind of way how we could provide and require two-hour education, so if you’re gonna buy a gun, I think you should be required to have a gun lock or storage box if you’re gonna buy a gun. I think there should be some education related to that. Maybe just a two-hour education about the prevention and safety related to owning or being a gun owner.”

Friday afternoon on Dubarry Road on the Indy’s east side, three people were shot and a bullet barely missed a juvenile.

“I came to the living room, and my nephew, he was sitting on the couch, and I looked at him, and I saw when the shot from the gun went right past his head,” said Alejandra Perez. “And I told everybody to get down.”

2023 was a record year for Marion County youth homicides (persons 19 years and younger) with a total of 44 deaths.

Gunshot wounds are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 20.

”We saw the highest rates of firearms injuries in Marion County in 2022,” said Caine. “We had 120 firearm-related emergency room visits from those children zero to 17. We’ve started to see a decrease, a decline. It dropped to 109 cases in 2023, and so far this year we’re down to 35.”

Two 16-year-olds were murdered within a month this spring in separate incidents in Indianapolis and Lawrence, and a pair of 16-year-olds were arrested for the killings in March and May.

The Marion County Public Health Department is building a website to provide young people and families the resources they need to combat youth violence.

”We are part of the Marion County Youth Violence Prevention Coalition,” said Caine. “And we’re developing and building a website and this website is gonna be a listing of all those organizations that provide services to anyone 24 years and under in terms of different programs that will help them protect themselves and their loved ones.

”This website will list every single organization, what age group it’s targeted to, what are the particular interventions they offer, what type of support. For example, someone may have their son arrested for a gun injury — how do I navigate the system and helping out my child?”

This month, MCPHD is also sponsoring an art contest titled, “Disarm Hate, Arm Love,” which will allow young people the opportunity to design artwork that addresses the fear of violence and its potential solutions.

”We will have shared responsibilities in carrying this out,” said Caine. “But I value the community as a trusted messenger, trusted individuals in their own social networks that I am willing to give two million dollars out to the community to help us solve this problem.”

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