Gun violence in Nashville was the focus of a community meeting involving Davidson County's District Attorney and grieving families.
The group Partners in the Struggle hosted the Q-and-A style event at Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church Sunday evening.
DA Glenn Funk and his office listened to and addressed questions from families of murder victims.
Some parents questioned what the relationship between the District Attorney's office and police officers and detectives was like and how city leaders can help stop youth from having easy access to guns.
Founder Earl Jordan, who was celebrating his 20th anniversary leading the group, said this dialogue was needed more than ever.
"We're in this together. When we lose anyone in our city when they're murdered, we all should be affected, every last one of us. I'm not saying that our city leaders aren't, but we can't get used to seeing this," Jordan said.
Funk shared his opinions to the increase of homicide and youth gun violence.
“These crimes are on an increase in my opinion for a number of reasons. First and foremost is that as a society I think we’ve lost sight of the sanctity of human life. All life comes from God. All of our lives belong to God. And yet, too many folks don’t really realize that the life they are taking is the life of a child of God, and that is a problem," he said.
Many in the audience agreed. Funk continued by saying many in our community need to reach out to kids, like churches have and Jordan does.
"I think a lot of times people don’t understand the permanence of death, especially our young folks. Killing someone else is a permanent solution to what is a temporary problem," Funk said.
“Lastly, the proliferation of guns. For far too many individuals in our community, kids get their cell phones when they’re 10 or 11 and they get their guns when they’re 16 or 18. We have to do what we can to stop the proliferation of guns,” he ended.
Throughout the night, parents said the community as a whole must "close the gap" when it comes to gun violence and that they want to be able to "work with the DA's office."
One mother, whose daughter died in crossfire at the James Cayce public housing development in October, emotionally expressed that more needs to be done in the city's juvenile system. She questioned why repeat offenders were able to get out and commit more crimes.
Jordan said he hopes to schedule future dialogues with juvenile court judges, police departments, and media organizations.
