City Council’s Special Committee on Gun Violence has spent the summer talking to stakeholders about ways to ensure people get through the season safely.
By Denise Clay-Murray
Photo Credit: Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson’s office
In Philadelphia over the last few years, living hasn’t necessarily been easy in the summertime as gun violence has been an issue.
Especially when you’re a young person in a neighborhood where too many of your fellow young people have too much time on their hands.
According to the City Controller’s Office, there have been at least 784 non-fatal and 203 fatal shootings in the city as of July 16. Of those shootings, 47% of the non-fatal shooting victims have been between the ages of 18-30 and 11% of them have been under 18. Among the fatal shootings, 48% of the victims are between 18-30 and 7% of the victims are under 18.
On Wednesday, Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, chair of City Council’s Special Committee on Gun Violence Prevention, gathered teens impacted by gun violence to City Council’s Caucus Room at City Hall for a “Peace Not Guns” roundtable discussion.
About 100 young people from organizations including the Fathership Foundation, Philly Truce, Unity In The Community and community activist Ant Brown’s organization, The ABRO Experience came to speak their minds and to share their suggestions on ways to prevent gun violence.
This is the second-round table held by Councilmember Johnson to address the issue of gun violence this summer. The first panel was held last week and comprised of officials including District Attorney Larry Krasner, Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, and Adara Combs, the executive director of the city’s Office of the Victims Advocate.
Whether it’s teenagers directly impacted by gun violence or those adults charged with making sure that they’re safe, the gun violence situation requires an effort on everyone’s part, Johnson said.
“We have to take a comprehensive approach,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, the level of gun violence that we’re seeing, we’ve never actually seen before even though the numbers are trending down. Every year when you have a murder rate that surpasses 500+ murders, there are people and families who are behind those numbers, which is totally unacceptable.”
These panel discussions are largely solutions based, so hearing what needs to be fixed and getting suggestions for fixing it is important, Johnson said. For example, many of the young people on Wednesday’s roundtable called for more recreational programs to give everyone alternatives to violence.
Meanwhile, the city officials who gathered last Wednesday wanted to talk about the means necessary to find out who’s doing the shooting and bring them to justice. While the police are doing the best they can, they’re hamstrung by the age of some of the tools they have at their disposal, Krasner said.
“The truth is that Philadelphia is decades behind in its capacity, meaning its ability to do a lot of DNA testing, a lot of [matching] fingerprints, a lot of dumping of phones…,” he said. “And we have to deal with it. Council has pushed through more money than ever, but a lot more is needed. We ought to be able to do at least some of the things that people see every night on CSI.”
Krasner also pointed out that doing these things requires political will. Toward that end, Council has put money toward a new forensics center that should solve at least some of these problems, Johnson said.
He said Johnson intends to hold more of these sessions as the summer progresses.
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