Melanie

"With gun violence, the beef is never going to end."

My friend was shot in the leg while we played hopscotch together years ago. Two guys got into an argument that led to gunfire and I was so scared. People who have a gun and use it to squash a beef aren’t strong. Strong is being able to sit there and talk it out. I’ve been a part of the PLC for about 2 years. I’ve learned that the best way to change this culture of violence is to cut down on the amount of guns on the street. But if we can’t do that, we need to teach people that they shouldn’t use violence to solve issues because violence always ends up leading to bigger issues. With gun violence, the beef is never going to end. But talking it out can make problems go away. I used to just yell at people because I wanted them to listen to what I had to say, but I’ve learned in this group to understand how the other people feel. Now I talk AND I listen. And we work things out. If we can get more people to believe that’s the way to settle problems, maybe we can get a handle on the gun violence hurting people across our communities.