PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — For many Philadelphia students, living with gun violence has become a fact of life.
After a school year when 199 Philadelphia students were shot and 33 were killed, Philadelphia students told Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry at a round-table Friday how the bloodshed has affected them and their mental health.
Cameron Zhang lives near Center City, and she’ll be a junior at Masterman High this year. She says while gun violence hasn't directly touched her life, she can't escape it.
"I know gun violence is very prevalent within Philadelphia,” she said. “Sometimes, you're in your bed and you hear gunshots at night."
She wonders if well-intended public officials are really making a difference.
"As for, like, what adults are doing, I don't feel like there's any push or direction [for] government or law enforcement to actively combat gun violence even though I know people are trying to do things."
Henry says her office is taking action.
“We’ve been very aggressive on straw purchasing, we’ve been very aggressive on the ghost guns, and it’s important that we utilize the laws that are on the books and hold people accountable," she said.
“We can enforce the gun laws, but it’s still out in the community, gun violence. And so the hope is that we’re going to learn from the students first-hand how we can do a better job at supporting them.”
Related
Tomas Hanna, 14, a freshman at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, says he can understand how the relentless violence affects young people’s mental health.
"I feel like the attorney general is doing a really good thing by holding these roundtables, but I think that gun violence is an incredibly hard mountain to overcome."
Henry says she plans to hold five to 10 similar roundtables across the state.
“We’re going to continue to do this to learn. And at the end of it, issue a report with recommendations on how we can do a better job.”
Related
