‘Everybody Is Armed’: As Shootings Soar, Philadelphia Is Awash in Guns

[Torie]

“More than 1,400 people have been shot this year in Philadelphia, hundreds of them fatally — a higher toll than in much larger New York or Los Angeles.”

“Everybody is armed,” said Jonathan Wilson, director of the Fathership Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Southwest Philadelphia that has been helping to conduct a multicity survey of young people’s attitudes about gun culture. “Nobody’s without a gun in these ZIP codes, because they’ve always been dangerous.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/us/philadelphia-gun-violence-shootings.html

Depressing, and I for one at this point have no idea as to what to do to ameliorate matters that seems practicable. I guess the situation might not be unique to Philly (perhaps St. Louis and Chicago have similar zones of homicide hell), but one wonders why Philly might be particularly armed and dangerous and hopeless.  For every illegal gun seized, three more appear, as to were.

PA loves their guns, that's why, one suggests? Well TX and GA and OH love guns too, right? Do Cincy and Cleveland and Atlanta and Houston and Dallas have similar free fire zones of death to this degree? I certainly hope not.

[sting in the rafters]

Yep. FILTHadelphia, DRILLadelphia, KILLadelphia, PHIraq, I’ve heard it all. Someone got shot and 2 carjackings THIS MORNING not even a half mile away from my house. And let’s not forget our good neighbors Crackden NJ, Atlantic S____y NJ, KILLmington HELLaware, and of course BODYmore MURDAland. I’ve often said The Wire could’ve been set in Philly (and actually is for a minor story arc in Season 2) because the Mid Atlantic’s port cities share a lot of the same problems.

Fortunately some like Wilmington are making strides. Idk if other cities can replicate their success as they’re 1/8th the size of Bmore and 1/20th the size of Philly, But they’ve taken several steps to curb gun violence and move towards a preventative, community oriented framework:

While Tracy knows it’s too early to declare victory, he’s optimistic for a number of reasons as the coronavirus pandemic ebbs. Among them, he says:

• Police are again able to attend community meetings in-person rather than over Zoom, which can help them to better re-establish or build trust with the residents of blocks where violence has been rampant.
• A new law that makes it tougher for people arrested on gun crimes to post bail was passed in 2021.
• The arrests of more than three dozen members of two gangs, NorthPak and MGS (M-Block Grimey Savages), on gun and other charges. Several were charged with murders and other shoootings.
• The resumption of the Group Violence Intervention program, which began with great fanfare in 2019 but languished once the pandemic began. The program offers drug dealers and gang members job training and social services as an alternative to intensive investigation and arrest.
• A gun crime task force that includes the chief, mayor, attorney general, and U.S. attorney. Members focus on every firearm arrest and follow the defendant through the criminal justice system.
• Data-driven policing that aims to prevent retaliatory shootings by visiting the victims’ families and associates.

Likewise, as I highlighted in my Blue Rocks ballpark review, there’s been quite a bit of YIMBYist activity:

Darius Howell is heartened that there’s been less gunfire in an area where large-scale home construction and renovations are in the works under a new initiative using $30 million in federal pandemic relief funds.
“That’s great because now we can get the kids in the community doing something positive and staying away from the drugs and killing their own folks,’’ Howell said.

Please, I know things are bleak, and they’ve been for a while. But I’d like to think this shows a better world is possible.

[Joe Republic]

Wow, you mean more guns doesn't make us safer?!  This is a completely unexpected development.  I wish somebody had said something before we got to this point.

[jamestroll]

The times I have been to Philadelphia, it did not feel that bad compared to St. Louis. But that was only because I was used to it.

99% of the time or more you will go on with your daily life without a crime victim.

In 2017, 2018, 2019 I slept every day hearing gun shots in the air and fighting.

[Horus]

The times I have been to Philadelphia, it did not feel that bad compared to St. Louis. But that was only because I was used to it.

99% of the time or more you will go on with your daily life without a crime victim.

In 2017, 2018, 2019 I slept every day hearing gun shots in the air and fighting.

Philly feels like New York without the good parts.

[Torie]

On 4 occasions, there were bullets fired in the alley behind the Torie "compound" in Hudson, NY.  While my tenants freaked, and my partner freaked, I was utterly calm. You see, it was drug deals gone bad. As long as it is the perps firing at each other, rather than "civilians," I don't feel much threatened. That said, the alley is well lit behind the compound, which alley we live directly on above the garages. The yard is in front in the area within the "U" of structures, that is contained, and in which the compound dogs cavort, with Roby the alpha dog of course of the quartet.

I'm a Baysian. Odds are the king. The rest is noise. I have been that way since rocks cooled.