Urban League Hosts Community Forum on Preventing Gun Violence

Community members gathered Wednesday night (September 17th) at Strikers Youth Arts Project for a forum on gun violence, hosted by the Tallahassee Urban League (Tallahassee, FL) and the Leon County Council on the Status of Men and Boys.

Community leaders say a conversation like this is the first step to making our neighborhoods safer.

"The goal of Leon County Sheriff's Office and every law enforcement agency is to reduce gun violence, but we reduce it with education," said Deputy Paxton Rogers.

At Strikers Youth Arts Project, college students, community leaders, and neighbors of all ages gathered for an open discussion about gun violence and what can be done to create change.

Tallahassee Urban League President Curtis Taylor says the goal is to move past the headlines and toward real solutions.

He said, "We will have a dialogue about how to come up with ways to combat this senseless gun violence and crimes in our communities."

Royle King, the executive director for the Council on the Status of Men and Boys, argues education is key to preventing violence.

King stated, "A lot of the work we do is training and education. A lot of times in communities where we're experiencing a lot of the gun violence, everybody does not know the issues that happen, so it's our job to educate them and make sure they understand the seriousness of guns and the laws associated with having guns."

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