Pulitzer winner’s photoblog shockingly captures Philadelphia’s #GunCrisis

>>> today, democrats in colorado are taking a historic step following the massacre at sandy hook elementary school . voting on three common sense measures to curb gun violence . two have passed, but if all three get to the desk of the state's democratic governor, john hickenlooper , colorado would become the second state of new york where lawmakers have enacted major gun law reforms since the tragedy in newtown. but, of course, lawmakers aren't the only ones who joined this fight. our next guest, a citizen journalist from philadelphia , has shown that anyone with a camera and access to the internet can enlist. day in and day out, his widely acclaimed blog, guncrisis.org, gives you a street-level look at the scourge of gun violence . and how it shapes the lives of children, families and entire communities who remain locked in its deadly grip. so let's welcome jim macmillan, co-founder of guncrisis.org. and former photographer for the " philadelphia tadaily news." what motivated you of taking this step of a photographic archive of shootings? why did you do it?

>> you know, since i moved to philadelphia close to 25 years ago, nearly 10,000 people have been shot to death. i got frustrated with the constant, but had the same frustration not knowing what to do that many of us suffer. the catalyst for this project was a workshop led by the center for journalism and trauma where i'm a fellow based in columbia. they held a workshop in philadelphia on best practices on reporting on youth violence. about a year and a half ago. a few months later it developed into this. the only other thing i'd like to add, it's not just me. it's a team of award winning photographers.

>> absolutely. i've looked at the pictures, jim . they really are tremendous. now, on average, one person in philadelphia has been killed by a gun every day for the last 25 years. one thing your blog does is show how this violence becomes part of the fabric of daily life for so many children. so i have to ask you, what happens to these kids? these children who have to live with this level of violence day in and day out?

>> well, it's pretty difficult to summarize, but the problem of living with the violence is among many of the problems living in poor parts of cities like philadelphia . but we're aware that there is sometimes a cycle of traumaization to perpetration of crime, and we learned we can disrupt that with certain therapies and other initiatives.

>> what do you think, jim , is the best way to decrease the amount of shootings? decrease the level of violence? should we look at it as primarily a political issue? or do you see this as a public health issue that needs a broader strategy?

>> well, i think it'sabove. an amenable to anything that works. if you look at the availability of guns in terms of supply and demand , the gun rights debate or gun control debate is about limiting the supply of guns. our strategies are to focus on innovative solutions, innovative alternatives to reduce the demand for guns to make feel people less often like they need to carry a gun and less often likely need to pull the trigger. there are public health programs in philadelphia , in other cities that have shown double-digit reductions in gun violence from year to year, but they're small. they need more support. there are other innovations in criminalnolo criminology in recent years. we need to focus on the most violent offenders and not lock up everybody in sight. and we've got an open source approach to anything that will work. i recently saw, read an article about a technology that might disable all weapons from firing in places that we agree are gun-free zones such as schools and shopping malls and so on.

>> jim macmillan, thank you so much for joining us and thank you for doing what you can to draw attention to the terrible effects of gun violence in our country. thank you, sir.

>> thank you so much.