Valley must go on offensive against youth gun violence

The summer of 2013 has brought good news and bad news in the volatile arena of young people and gun violence in the Mahoning Valley. Sadly, the bad has far outweighed the good.

The summer’s death toll has been grievously high. In June, a Class of 2011 standout state championship football player for Ursuline High School was shot and killed in an ambush on Youngstown’s East Side. In July, a Class of 2012 star baseball and basketball player for the Boardman Spartans was gunned down on the city’s South Side. And just this month, a Summit Academy student was shot and killed while attending a birthday party in Perkins Park near Warren’s “Millionaire’s Row” neighborhood.

The circumstances and causes differ in each case, and none of the victims appeared to be the gun-wielding aggressors, but the toll nonetheless illustrates that more must be accomplished to shield young people — and people of all ages for that matter — from the deadly consequences of gun violence.

MUCH HAS BEEN DONE ALREADY

To be sure, much already has been accomplished. We trumpeted that good news last month in noting the dramatic decrease in overall violent crime and homicides in Youngstown this year. The Violence Gun Reduction Interdiction Program has had a highly visible presence in Youngstown and Warren and has made a dent in the number of illegal guns on city streets. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is bringing record numbers of illegal gun indictments in Youngstown, Warren and other northern Ohio communities. And in Youngstown, the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence, a partnership of law enforcement, social service agencies, and the faith-based community designed to reduce gun violence, has been actively working all summer long at targeting at-risk potential gang recruits with lessons in coming clean and staying clean.

Just last week, Youngstown police hosted a summit of 13 boys with histories of run-ins or near run-ins with the law. A common denominator of all participants is that each boy’s home had been searched for guns, drugs or stolen property. Youngstown Police Chief Rod Foley warned the youths that the city police department will keep watching them in hopes of preventing a life of crime that often has deadly results. Other speakers at the event offered concrete proposals and resources to turn the young men’s lives around. In Warren, city police recently beefed up patrols of high-crime areas in the city.

WHAT ELSE CAN BE DONE?

Such initiatives have had tangible positive results and merit commendation, but as the continuing assault on young people in our community and in our country illustrates, more must be accomplished.

Taking a lead role in that mission has been Warren City Council President Bob Dean. Dean has bemoaned the lack of cooperation and coordination in that city in recent years toward lessening the disturbing toll. Two years ago, he attempted to muster up support for a gun buyback program, but only two of 25 pastors responded, and no one from city government and the city school district showed much interest, he said.

But sparked by the gun death of 18-year-old McKayla Hopkins at Perkins Park last weekend, Dean has reactivated that effort and has won much greater support this time around. We wish him and his supporters success with their gun-buyback plan, modeled after those in Cleveland. Earlier this summer in Cleveland, a buyback program — in which illegal guns are handed in to police in exchange for gift cards — netted 352 firearms, including 320 handguns. That’s 352 fewer opportunities for firearm misuse and tragedy.

MAYORS AGAINST ILLEGAL GUNS

Beyond that initiative, Warren Mayor Doug Franklin and Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone ought to consider taking the lead in a Valleywide assault on gun violence. The mayors of the Valley’s two largest cities both belong to the 1,000-member-strong Mayors Against Illegal Guns started by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006. The group, which staunchly supports Americans’ Second-Amendment rights to gun ownership, works to reduce gun violence in cities through initiatives on the local, state and federal levels.

The group’s website, mayorsagainstillegalguns.org, offers an arsenal of dozens of ideas for leaders throughout the nation to study and determine whether they’d be viable fits in their communities. The suggestions range from forming coalitions of community groups and responsible gun dealerships to creating public registries of those found guilty of illegal gun ownership and gun crimes.

Exploration of such proposals would complement the cities’ already ongoing and effective anti-violence initiatives. Now is the time to increase that momentum to decrease the destructive toll of gun violence on our community. In so doing, the good news of dramatic reductions in gun violence in the Valley may one day far outweigh the bad news of more victims caught in the cross-fire.