'We’re not here to debate': Fayetteville groups discuss concerns, solutions to gun violence

For dozens of people gathered Tuesday night at the Kiwanis Recreation Center in Fayetteville, gun violence is not a debate.

Politicians, law enforcement representatives and local residents met for a community conversation about gun violence, facilitated by the nonprofit Greater Fayetteville United in partnership with eight other statewide or local organizations.

The mission of Greater Fayetteville United is to “enhance the quality of life” for all residents of Fayetteville, said K.C. Harney, president of the organization.

“What kind of quality of life do we have when children go to school, a place where they’re supposed to be and supposed to be safe, and you have to be concerned about their lives,” Harney asked. “That’s why we’re here — for solutions. We’re not here to debate about it.”

Charles Smith, who recently won the N.C. House District 44 Democratic primary and is unopposed in the November general election, also helped organize Tuesday night’s forum.

Smith, whose platform has included supporting “red flag” laws that would temporarily block access to guns for people deemed unfit by a judge if they pose a danger to themselves or others, said the forum was not a political event but that it allowed him to hear the community’s voice so he “can be their voice in Raleigh.”

More on gun control: Gun control supporters say 'enough'

Forum: The Fayetteville Observer Forum: How can we stop mass shootings?

“What’s happened in recent weeks in New York and in Texas is heartbreaking and it’s unacceptable, but unfortunately it’s not new, and it’s not rare,” Smith told Tuesday night’s crowd of more than 60 people. Mass shootings at a New York grocery store and Texas elementary school last month left 29 dead. “Gun violence is an incredibly multifaceted issue that impacts all of us," Smith said. 

Residents speak out

Fayetteville resident Christian Mosley said he’s been affected by both gun violence and having relatives use guns as a way to defend themselves.

Mosley said his cousin was carjacked within the past couple of weeks and had a gun to protect himself.

He said his father is also a gun owner and he believes there were many times his father "came home” because he had a gun.

“On the flip side, I have family that has been taken away by gun violence by private citizens and police,” he said. “So this situation is very much full spectrum.”

Mosley said he views mental health as being part of the discussion.

Festival Park: Heal the Ville event brings crowds to Festival Park to stop the violence in Fayetteville

Mosley, who is Black, said American descendants of slavery, in particular, have been a “traumatized group that has had no healing.”

He said drive-by shootings are an example.

"I was 8 years old, we had a shooting right in front of my house — you need to get away from windows and into the hallways and stay low, because that’s a way of life for people who look like me,” he said.

Mosley said gun violence concerns didn’t seem to be discussed as much in Fayetteville until it became a problem near middle-class neighborhoods like Haymount or King’s Grant.

He said he thinks economic aspects and those struggling to support their families should also be considered when talking about gun violence.

Certain laws make it difficult to rehabilitate people who made criminal mistakes, thus leaving them to resort to crime as a way to survive, he said.

“There is a new Jim Crow,” Mosley said. “You can absolutely turn somebody away because of their criminal records.”

Fayetteville resident Demetria “Dee” Murphy shared a similar view.

Murphy said she served about 10 years in prison and has been out for 12 years.

Since then. she said, she's earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work and is working toward earning a doctorate’s degree in criminal justice.

“We are burying more youth every day than our elderly,” Murphy said.

Murphy said not all kids gravitate toward gangs because of their home life but rather do so because of peer pressure.

She said an “education to prison” pipeline exists for some children who’ve had behavioral issues at young ages, and that schools seem to have fewer teachers than school resource officers.

Murphy said the community needs to understand that once someone “pays their debt to society,” there are roadblocks once they’re released from prison, where they can be working a minimum wage job instead of utilizing trades they learned in prison.

“I wake up in the morning — it’s another shooting. It's another car accident. It's another opiate overdose,” Murphy said. “People are hurting, and they’re looking for opportunities.”

She said business owners can be part of the solution.

“You have the opportunity to employ a young man or a young woman and keep a gun out of their hand,” she said.

Murphy said the community should come together as a whole to make a change instead of being focused on just the “four corners” of their district or neighborhood.

“Because as long as us as adults continue to operate in division, what do you think the youth are going to do,” she asked.

Tony Brown, founder of nonprofit Southern CC Inc., said he’s started a holistic community garden near Murchison Road in Fayetteville and is working to bring a film school to the area to “teach kids how to shoot movies instead of a gun.”

Brown said kids spell love, “t-i-m-e.”

“At the end of the day, we need unity,” he said.

Program suggestions

Sara Smith, who represented  North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, said there are policies and evidence-based programs to reduce gun violence

Hospital-based programs can teach gunshot wound patients about programs to prevent retaliation, and provide victims with educational support, job training or mental health services “to interrupt the cycle of violence,” Smith said.

A similar community violence interrupter program allows community members — often former gun violence victims — to mediate conflicts and deescalate situations in the community before it leads to gun violence, she said.

Protest: Group gathers in downtown Fayetteville to protest gun violence

According to data she presented, similar programs in New Haven, Connecticut, and Richmond, California, reduced violent crime by 70% in New Haven over eight years and in Richmond over 10 years.

She estimated that if Fayetteville were to implement the programs, about $1.8 million in funding would be needed annually, and $700,000 would be needed to create an office for violence prevention.

Smith said another program that could be considered at the state level is safe gun storage education to teach gun owners to lock up their guns and to store ammunition separately.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville residents discuss concerns about gun violence