Our Community Has Concerns Over Guns, Laws, and Lives: How Gun Violence Shapes Our Community. Saturday, September 27, 2025 | 11:00 AM

 

Our Community Has Concerns Over Guns

A Cover Story by Black Texans, Inc.

“In all thy getting, get a real good understanding.” – Proverbs 4:7

Guns, Laws, and Lives: How Gun Violence Shapes Our Community. Saturday, September 27, 2025 | 11:00 AM

2864 Mississippi Avenue, Fort Worth, TX 76104

The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., Fort Worth Metropolitan Chapter is convening voices of courage and conviction at an urgent community forum titled “A Community in Focus: Gun Violence, Legislation, and Our Lived Reality.”

At the center of this gathering will be Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr., senior pastor of New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth. For more than two decades, Pastor Tatum has emerged as one of the most consistent, outspoken, and courageous faith leaders in America confronting the epidemic of gun violence.

The forum is more than an event—it is a call to conscience, a reminder that our communities cannot afford silence when lives are at stake.

Why This Matters Now

Gun violence is not an abstract issue to be debated solely in the halls of Congress. It is a lived reality that invades homes, schools, churches, and neighborhoods. It shows up at playgrounds and grocery stores. It devastates birthday parties and shatters family gatherings.

Across Texas—and across the United States—the toll has grown unbearable:

• Mothers burying their sons before they reach adulthood.

• Children learning to crouch under desks during active shooter drills.

• Fathers grieving daughters whose dreams were cut short.

• Entire communities cycling through trauma, fear, and mourning.

For Black communities in particular, the weight of gun violence has been devastating. National studies show that Black Americans are 10 times more likely than white Americans to die by gun homicide. Texas ranks among the highest states in firearm fatalities affecting children and teens.

The Fort Worth Metropolitan Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. has stepped into this moment with clarity and courage. Their goal is to transform grief into growth, fear into faith, and silence into action.

What Attendees Will Gain

Those who join the September 27 forum will leave with:

• Understanding: A clearer picture of how current gun laws impact access, safety, and prevention.

• Truth: Stories and data that illuminate the real human cost of gun violence.

• Tools: Proven community-based strategies to build safer neighborhoods and stronger families.

This is more than a seminar. It is a space for healing, a call to collective responsibility, and an invitation to reimagine what safety and justice look like in our city.

A National Voice with Local Roots

Though Pastor Tatum’s ministry is rooted in Fort Worth’s historic 76104 zip code, his voice has carried across the nation. From New York to California, from Uvalde to Houston, from Washington to Kentucky, and even to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, he has lifted up a message of peace, prevention, and community transformation.

His work has been featured on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. Major newspapers nationwide have quoted him as both a prophetic voice and a community healer. For Tatum, speaking out against gun violence is not just activism—it is an act of faith.

Here at home, New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church has become a hub for hope and healing. The church has hosted dozens of forums on gun violence, giving families space to grieve, reflect, and organize.

It has also been the driving force behind two powerful initiatives:

• Vidas Robadas / Stolen Lives: A stirring outdoor art installation with Texas Impact, where rows of T-shirts stand as silent witnesses to Texans lost to gun violence.

• Guns to Gardens: A faith-driven program where firearms are surrendered and dismantled, reforged into garden tools that symbolize new life.

And to reach the youngest members of the community, Pastor Tatum has championed Fun Over Guns Rube Foster Pitch, Hit, & Run Invitational—a youth-focused baseball program designed to give children positive outlets, mentorship, and hope. By investing in play, teamwork, and discipline, the program offers an alternative to violence and reminds young people that their futures hold more promise than peril.

Together, these initiatives reflect Pastor Tatum’s belief that faith must move beyond the pulpit into the streets, creating visible acts of transformation.

A Leader on the National Stage

While deeply committed to Fort Worth, Pastor Tatum’s leadership has earned national and global recognition:

• Bloomberg CityLab: Facilitator and panelist at the 10th Anniversary of this global convening of mayors and innovators.

• New Economic Catalyst Nominee (2024): Recognized for connecting faith, workforce development, and social justice.

• Aspen Institute – Racial Justice & Religion Collective: Selected for a distinguished network exploring the role of faith in advancing racial justice.

• Fort Worth, Inc. Magazine: Honored as one of the most influential pastors in Fort Worth for five consecutive years.

The Human Cost

The statistics are staggering: in 2023, more than 48,000 Americans died from gun-related injuries. But numbers cannot capture the trauma.

Pastor Tatum has prayed in hospital waiting rooms with grieving parents, stood at crime scenes, and buried teenagers with dreams cut short.

He often says:

“We cannot afford to get numb. Every lost life is a light extinguished, a future stolen. Our calling as people of faith and citizens is to do everything in our power to stop the bleeding—literally and spiritually.”

And he dreams of a day when, as he puts it:

“We have more baptisms than burials.”

Faith and Action

What makes Pastor Tatum’s leadership unique is how he weaves faith, policy, and activism together. His guiding Scripture—Proverbs 4:7, “In all thy getting, get a real good understanding”—reminds us that wisdom must lead to action.

For him, peacemaking is not passive. As he says:

“When Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’ He wasn’t talking about being silent. He was talking about building peace, creating it, fighting for it.”

Why Fort Worth? Why Now?

Fort Worth’s 76104 zip code—home to New Mount Rose—has faced decades of disinvestment, poverty, and cycles of violence. Yet it has also birthed resilience.

For Pastor Tatum and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., this fight is not abstract. It is urgent. It is personal.

The Mission of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc.

The Fort Worth Metropolitan Chapter is dedicated to advocating on behalf of Black women and girls, promoting leadership development and gender equity in health, education, and economic empowerment.

Through programs, partnerships, and public forums like this one, they are building a stronger, more equitable future for all.

A Call to Action

The September 27 forum is not just about awareness—it is about action.

The vision is bold but clear:

• Protect lives.

• Honor those we’ve lost.

• Build communities where children thrive without fear.

Closing Reflection

The fight against gun violence is not only about laws or politics—it is about protecting life itself.

By lifting up both truth and hope, Pastor Kyev Tatum shows what it means to be a pastor to the people and a prophet for the times.

On September 27, as Fort Worth gathers, one truth will resound:

• Fort Worth will not be silent.

• Texas will not be silent.

• Our communities will not be silent.

Through understanding, courage, and action, we will move closer to the wisdom—and the peace—that our times so urgently demand.