Leaders with the county of San Diego are collaborating with a community outreach group to reduce gun violence and violent crime by engaging communities through a series of events to reduce gun violence and violent crime.
The group met Monday night for a Town Hall at the Linda Vista Library. It was an important part of Shaphat's "Season of Peace," a series of community outreach events to minimize gun violence that run from March 1 to April 8. Other events include community peace walks, street side memorial services and peace meals, according to their website.
Carlos Munoz Jr. was an only child and while still a teenager was shot five times and killed. The pain lingered for his mother and father.
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“We just learned how to live with it. It's difficult. Losing a child, you lose yourself,“ his father, Carlos Munoz Sr., said.
Munoz says the teen was killed by two gang members. Junior was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
“You feel like you failed even though now, 9 years later, I don’t blame myself. But in the beginning, it was like that,“ Munoz said.
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Munoz is now an advocate and opened a mental health clinic in his son’s memory.
His experience is what brought him to Monday night’s Town Hall on gun violence, along with 30 others.
The panel of County and city elected officials and peace advocates took questions from the audience; questions like:
Q: "How does crime data aid in prevention?"
“Data is critical. Without knowing the details of what’s going on we can’t aim our resources to the right places,” Legislation & Advocacy Team lead Therese Hymer said.
Q: Can it prevent mass shootings?
“Since we know most people give some kind of warning we can use that data to show how we can intervene and how we get the people who hear the warning to report it,“ San Diego District 5 Councilmember, Marni Von Wilpert said.
Since the pandemic, District Attorney Summers Stephan says truancy is rampant.
Q: How does getting kids back in school curb violence?
“Have the advocates in the community work with families that are routinely having their kids not show up in school to get them back in school before a shooting happens,” Stephan said.
Much of the audience is made up of volunteers, community activists and parents motivated by their own personal experiences.They are the front line of the fight for a more peaceful future.
Seasons of Peace also sets up specific times throughout the year when lived-experience experts approach gang members to offer ways to exit the culture.
