PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council’s Special Committee on Gun Violence Prevention held an "emergency" meeting on Thursday. Law enforcement officials briefed community activists about efforts to combat violent crime involving guns.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw thanked the activists, saying their involvement is key.
"Public safety is an ecosystem," Outlaw said. "We’re not going to police our way out of this. It is about mindset. It’s about a culture of violence, and how do we change the culture, how do we work with our young men, to insure that mindset is changed?"
State law enforcement officials also attended.
Deputy Attorney General Brendan O’Malley shared some of the ways his office is working with police to crack down on illegal gun sales. One strategy is to flag sales to people who are 21 — the minimum age for handgun purchases.
"If we see somebody that turned 21 just a month ago, and they’re out there purchasing five nine-millimeters on one day, that’s a trigger to us: Get up on that individual, find out their associations," O'Malley said. "And we’ve been successful in bringing down trafficking rings in that fashion."
O’Malley says the state also monitors gun shows, a common source of weapons involved in violent crime.