KEEL Listeners Say ‘Here’s How to Fix the City’s Gun Violence’

As the city's epidemic of gun violence grow, KEEL listeners weighed with their opinions on how to solve the problem, which seems to be increasing by the week.

The on-air conversation began with quotes from two disparate sources, economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell and comedian Adam Corolla:

"One key fact that keeps getting ignored is that the poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits every year since 1994. Behavior matters and facts matter, more than the prevailing social visions or political empires built on those visions." - Thomas Sowell

"Every problem we have today - drugs, prison, gangs, domestic violence, stems from broken families. Like recalling a bad medication, stop chasing the side effects and get to the root cause." -Adam Corolla

And KEEL listeners agreed, citing not only the dissolution of the nuclear family, but the loss of church as the community's moral compass. Here are a few samples:

"Divorce is the issue with learning and crime. The destruction of the nuclear family is the sole cause of all of this." - Matt

"How bout church? March 2021 Gallup poll says less than 50 percent of people attend church. Only 47 percent. First time in 6 decades! Norm was 70 percent church attendance!" - Hank

"You could encourage people to to wait to have children and to take relationships serious. People who grow up in a two parent home are very lucky they often get to see a good example. You need good examples for those who don't have the opportunity to see that at home." - Brandy

"When are the people going to help them selves and quit being a victim ? the family unit can then begin to heal. Why do we need a government agency paying for early childhood development when it should be done with mom and a dad in the home teaching the children. I have a four-year-old grandson that knows his ABC and his colors. He can write his name tans count to 50 or higher. It was taught in the family. Quit throwing money at Over the last year many people with young children didn’t work. Let’s see if their kids learned anything while at home." - CW

"Try church. Gallop poll says only 47 percent of people attend church! Lowest ever! Has dropped drastically in last few years. Try Jesus!" - Allen

"I too am skeptical of (programs) and not optimistic. People do not work with their kids anymore whether they work out of the home or not they do not work with them after dinner or at breakfast anymore. Most children that come from the impoverished neighborhood parrots teach them their behavior they are taught the behavior that they exhibit when their children and young adults and teens. There is really nothing that we can do to prevent that, those things are up to the parrots most everything including violence is taught to those children at a very very young age that's all they know that's all they see." - KO