WASHINGTON — D.C. residents voiced their concerns on gun violence in the community during a public roundtable on Friday.
Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who chairs the council's judiciary and public safety committee, organized the three-day roundtable.
Participants discussed the personal impact gun violence has had on their families. They also talked about gun violence prevention strategies.
Pinto called the issue an “emergency” and a “crisis”.
“I hear everyday from residents frightened by the epidemic of violence, especially gun violence,” she said.
Metropolitan Police Department data shows there have been 372 crimes, involving guns, committed in D.C. so far this year. Thirty of the 38 homicides that have taken place in D.C. also involved the use of a gun.
Recently, Councilmember Vince Gray introduced legislation to hire more police officers to combat the problem.
However, Councilmember Brianne Nadeau said during the roundtable hiring more police cannot be the lone solution.
"Addressing crime is complex and challenging,” she said. “If it were as easy as hiring more police and locking people in jail and throwing away the key, we and cities around the country would've solved it long ago."
D.C. native Tony Lewis Junior said the District needs to focus on what contributes to the violence.
"We have to have a war on poverty,” he said. “Poverty, as Aristotle stated, is the parent of revolution and crime and where you do see the highest occurrences of gun violence in our city? It’s in communities that are ravaged with poverty."
Some roundtable participants also called for more funding for violence interruption programs.
“All of these violence interruption teams should be interacting with one another and they all have to be better trained,” said D.C. resident Stuart Anderson.
Still, one D.C. resident said the federal government has no business intervening in how the District approaches the issue. Michelle Chappell, of the D.C. chapter Moms Demand Action, wants District leaders to fight for the criminal code passed by the council before Congress passes a law to nullify it.
President Joe Biden said he would not stop Congress from doing so.
“I urge the council to push back against the narrative that the RCC is soft on crime and to demand that D.C. home rule be respected,” Chappell said.
The roundtable will continue Saturday morning, beginning at 11 a.m., with an in-person session at the Anacostia Library.
It will then culminate with a hybrid meeting, involving government public safety officials, Monday, at 11 a.m., in the Wilson Building.