Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin was in Buffalo on Thursday to host a gun violence roundtable for students at SUNY Buffalo State College.
Along with Lt. Gov. Benjamin was Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Buffalo State College President Katherine S. Conway-Turner, and other members of the local community with ties to anti-violence groups.
"We are committed to being proactive, not reactive," said Lt. Gov. Benjamin in a press conference Thursday afternoon. "We believe that it's about getting to the root causes of gun violence, and the way we're going to do that is with the people in this room, talking about all of the core issues that drive the topic. Education, housing, mental health, issues of workforce development, all of these important priorities are what will help us get to a solution."
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has talked in the past, along with other local government leaders, of how important it is to get guns off the streets, especially the illegal guns, that are commonly known now as "ghost guns". Lt. Gov. Benjamin knows there are guns coming into the community from multiple locations and pipelines, but it's about how members of the community work together to address those present problems.
"Gov. Hochul has started an interstate task force on illegal guns, which she's asked me to represent her on," Lt. Gov. Benjamin said. "We have nine states involved, including the federal government, including ATF. So far, we've been able to get 1,600 guns off the street. That's important, but we have to continue communicating, continue this cross-collaboration from a law enforcement standpoint."
Benjamin believes that one of the main contributing problems to gun violence in the community is the influence of social media, especially on the younger generation. He says it's important to stay ahead of the information on social media, and that investments need to be made to help people of the community stay ahead.
Another standpoint Lt. Gov. Benjamin says needs to be better addressed is how to resolve mental health issues for the youth of the community, and how to better handle the traumas of every day life.
"How are we helping our young kids deal with that? What's our trauma-informed care? How are we doing that in our schools? How are we doing that in our communities? What are the investments we need to make to ensure that we have some of the coping mechanism, the tools to deal with what is going on out there?" the Lt. Gov. said. "Conflict resolution - How are we teaching young people, particularly, to do what to deal with conflict? How do we how do you deal with your emotions? How do you deal with rejection? All of those important things are topics we that must dissect, and we must make sure that we're providing resources to get that done."
One of the final solutions Lt. Gov. Benjamin discussed on Thursday was looking towards the messengers and others that can be a positive influence on people of the community. With them, as well as friends, family and other groups and entities getting involved, it is the collaboration of everyone that will help cut back on gun violence and lead to more positive outcomes for so many.
"We must work together. This is not this group versus that group and who's going to get the credit. We all get the credit if our kids and our communities are safe," Lt. Gov. Benjamin said. "That is why Gov. Kathy Hochul has launched an office of gun violence prevention, which is being led by Calliana Thomas, and she and myself and others, we are going across the state and we are going to invest, and we're going to create real deliverables so that communities know that we're serious. That's another issue, you got to have credibility that we're serious, and we're going to work in a consistent way to help address some of these important problems that we're dealing with."
You can listen to the entire press conference below: