The debate we sometimes hear among advocates, experts and commentators about gun violence in Chicago is whether it's more important to focus on immediate solutions or to take a longer view and address its root causes. A new survey of young adults in Chicago's most violent neighborhoods demonstrates that this is a false choice.

In a report called "We Carry Guns to Stay Safe," the Urban Institute describes a research project designed to better understand how young adults in four of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods experience gun violence, learn more about gun availability and gun carrying in those neighborhoods, and point to solutions that can help reduce the violence.

The research was unique because it collected data firsthand from young adults who live in violent neighborhoods and have direct experience with gun violence. It's been said that those who are closest to the problem are also closest to the solutions. And, indeed, these survey findings not only were sobering—they demand our attention.

Here are four key takeaways from the Urban Institute survey of 345 adults from 18 to 26 years old conducted in Austin and North Lawndale on the West Side, and Auburn-Gresham and Englewood on the South Side.

• Guns are a fact of life in Chicago's most violent neighborhoods. Fully one-third of respondents said they've carried a gun; among the young men, one-half said they've carried a gun. Almost all reported carrying illegally, without a Firearm Owner's Identification card or concealed carry permit. They carry guns for their own protection or to protect their friends or family members. Guns are easy to get—69 percent said it would take them a matter of hours to get their hands on a gun. Young people report that they get guns through informal transactions on the street, theft, and via straw purchasers. The easy availability of guns fuels Chicago's gun violence and is a daily reality for our residents and our police officers.

• Young people who carry guns more often than not are also victims of gun violence. Of those surveyed, more than a third had been shot or shot at, and 85 percent knew someone close to them who had been shot or shot at. Young men who had been shot or shot at in the past year were 300 percent more likely to report that they had carried a gun. As one of the community partners working with the Urban Institute put it, "Hurt people hurt people." We must treat the underlying trauma and victimization impacting so many of our young people, intervening as quickly as possible for young people hurting emotionally and potentially intending to seek revenge.

• Young people in Chicago's violent neighborhoods do not trust the police and do not fear arrest. The lack of trust and confidence in the police was among the starkest findings in the survey. Fewer than 10 percent see police as honest, fair or respectful. Likewise, only 16 percent of those who reported having carried guns said they thought it was likely they'd get caught for carrying a gun illegally, and just 10 percent said they were likely to get caught if they shot at someone. Rebuilding trust between the police and community members is an imperative, one lacking in quick fixes.

• Poverty is also a fact of life for these young people. Among survey respondents, 40 percent reported annual household income of less than $10,000. When asked what it would take to get them to stop carrying guns, the most common answer, repeated by nearly 60 percent of respondents, was "a job." Lack of economic opportunity is not far removed from violence.

The Urban Institute worked closely with five community partners to conduct the research: the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, UCAN, St. Sabina Church, Teamwork Englewood and the Safer Foundation. The study was funded by the Joyce Foundation.

The young people who participated in the survey made it plain that our immediate issues in Chicago are also the root causes of the violence: ready availability of guns; trauma and victimization; the absence of trust between police and the community; and disinvestment and lack of economic opportunity. Debating whether these are root causes or urgent symptoms is a distraction. They are both, and we must attack them with both immediacy and sustainability. Anything less is not an option.

Nina Vinik is director of the Joyce Foundation's Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform Program.