The War on Philadelphia
By Mah-Bintou Traoré
January 21, 2022We all grew up envisioning our childhood and teenage years being fun . Hanging out with friends , playing outside . We all want a neighborhood that is safe enough so we can express ourselves . As teens , we often want to go out and have fun , but we can’t experience that because of gun violence . Gun violence does not only affect us from living a normal life , it also affects us mentally.
Statics , numbers of people shot in 2021 weekly.
Study has shown In impoverished neighborhoods children ages 1-11 are suffering due to gun violence in their neighborhoods and surrounding neighborhood. In addition because of this reason children are being rushed to the emergency room daily for mental health related issues.
It was also shown that children exposed to gun violence , had more processed anger and was suicidal . This is very important information to know because of this issue , many more children will be in the ER.
Community leaders , also explains their pain for the children who are mentally drained from living in impoverished neighboorhood and surrounding it . Quan King says “ That’s the trauma that a lot of youth are dealing with right now , they're trying to figure cope and what is best “. He later followed up with “ We lost 4 kids this summer “ due to gun violence .
Gun violence is not only a problem in the African - American community but also hispanic and white communities . In a video women from different backgrounds explained their pain due to their children being dead cause of gun violence . So no gun violence is an issue in every community and has nothing to do with race or ethnicity.
Astan Coulibaly sophomore at Engineering and science feel as though , Philly is a warzone for those living in it .
“I live in southwest Philadelphia," Astan said. I would definitely describe that as a warzone. There's a lot of gang violence, drugs, and just gun violence in general. It is not necessarily safe as community to live in.”
She also describes how because gun violence it is very difficult to enjoy engage in normal teenage activities , because the uncertainty knowing if you will return home safe or not .
“There's a lot of things that I maybe want to do," Astan said, "but I can't like going out and staying out late. My friends are, you know, a lot of stuff that isn't necessarily safe because of the gun violence. Honestly, I feel like communities has to come together. And I feel like the people influence to get to know each other more.”
To lessen gun violence we as people need to understand each other and have empathy for each other . Also that disagreement should be , solved through talking instead of gun violence . We also have to take the time to know each other because you don’t want to harm somebody you know .
”You wouldn't want to hurt your neighbor, you wouldn't want to hurt somebody that you can see your child and or somebody that you can see a sister or brother”.