Is teen gun violence starting in the home? We ask.

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) -A violent weekend last month in Columbus, but what is the solution to stop the violence? It’s a question for those who work with teens often, Those who talked to us agree it starts in the home. “It effects gun violence comes in when the single parenting allows that child to allow that child to have enough time to be involved in the thing that the parent doesn’t even know because the parents not there,” says Jerome Lawson, Director of Cure Violence Columbus.

“A lot of parents are trying to find out what to do for their children, because they don’t know what to do for their children,” says Michael Gumm, Board Chairman of “The Protégé Project”. Mayor Skip Henderson making remarks at his state of the city address, saying parenting is an issue that contributes to high crime rates.

For each of these men who work with teens and parents, they say the root is to make sure parents whether single or married have the tools they need to create successful children. Both “The Protégé Project” and “Cure Violence” are making connections with teen by interacting with the child and parent. “The mentorship program that we offer, allows for us to engage and be with those students talk to their parents, and to get them to understand they have to keep their son’s first, we are losing them to gun violence,” says Gumm. They tell us, black young males raised in single parent households are most at risk, simply because of what they see.

“The streets begin to look attractive, I see them boys my age have more money that I got, they have more so now you have a gun, and you don’t have to have a gun, but you can’t show that you are soft,” says Lawson. Leading to deadly violence, the consensus seems to be, curtailing violence starts in the home.

But how? Male mentorship? Parenting classes? Teaching financial literacy? All weapons these community leaders say are in their arsenal, but it all takes time.

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