Asheville area youth gun violence up 255%: Community holds gun safety event downtown
ASHEVILLE - When DeAngelo Collins was in eighth grade, he was expelled from school. Then as a senior in high school, was shot twice in the same incident that killed a 12-year-old.
“That was a life changing, altering event for me and kind of my ‘why’ for why I pour my energy into the youth because I never want to see anybody else go through that,” said Collins, who’s now the director of My Daddy Taught Me That, a local, Black-led nonprofit that supports young men through advocacy, education and mentoring.
“I want to lead by example and change the narrative,” Collins said at a June 7 gun safety event at Pack Square Park in downtown Asheville.
The event was organized by My Daddy Taught Me That, YTL and the SPARC Foundation to highlight the need for violence prevention efforts and promote responsible firearm ownership through safe storage during Gun Violence Awareness Month.
As children jumped in bounce houses, water splashed on the splash pad and music blared over speakers, community workers and law enforcement handed out free gun safety locks and demonstrated how to use lock boxes and gun cases.
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Nearly one year ago to the day of this event, gun shots rang out in this same park in Asheville’s city center when a 16-year-old was charged with shooting two other juveniles at the end of the city’s Juneteenth Festival.
In Buncombe County, the number of criminal complaints involving minors with guns jumped from 20 to 71 – a 255% increase – when comparing data from January through October 2022 to the same time period in 2023. The number of youths involved in these complaints also increased by 200% from 10 to 30 minors in Buncombe County, according to data provided by the county.
So far in 2024, the number of minors killed by firearms is trending lower than normal, with none this year to date, according to Jorge Redmond, chair of the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. However, the rise in the number of children involved in gun activity “is becoming an issue,” Redmond said.
“Guns are readily accessible and available to our youth,” Keynon Lake, founder of My Daddy Taught Me That, told the Citizen Times. “We see it all too well. Kids are walking around with rounds of clips.”
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Capt. Dustan Aulderage with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office said they’ve seen handguns, rifles and shotguns in the hands of children. In 2023, a teenager shot an AR-15 at least 50 times into homes north of Woodfin, seriously injuring one man.
“It’s not the norm” to see minors with semi-automatic rifles, Aulderage said, “but it does happen, unfortunately.”
How children get their hands on firearms is “hard to say,” but a lot can be prevented by securely storing weapons, according to Will Baxter, the county’s community violence prevention coordinator. Aulderage agreed, saying most of the youth gun calls he’s handled stem from an adult hiding a firearm somewhere they think a child wouldn’t find it.
Other contributing factors are ghost guns, or kits that allow people to purchase parts that can be built into an untraceable weapon, and firearms left unlocked in vehicles that are broken into, Baxter said.
More: Search warrant: Student brought 'ghost gun' and ammunition to Erwin High School
Redmond, the JCPC chair, said there was a spike in youth gun violence after the COVID-19 pandemic, but he is hopeful that the trend will “return to normal,” especially with the help of multiple community programs that are continuing to educate young people on the consequences.
Baxter said the community violence intervention program is trying to target the root causes, as well as get youths involved in positive activities and teach them how to be leaders in the community.
Collins, My Daddy Taught Me That director, said, “leading by example is the best thing you can do for them and exposing them to something new, getting them out of that environment.”
“Whether it’s community engagement like this, on calls where we go to people’s homes, or within the schools, we’re trying to educate people to the best of our ability before it becomes an enforcement issue,” Capt. Aulderage said.
How to store guns safely
Firearms are now the leading cause of injury-related death for children and youths in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety. Here are some tips to safely and securely store guns.
Store your firearm safely by unloading it, locking it up, making sure it stays locked, and not leaving it unsecure in a car.
There are five ways you lock your firearm: use a gun safe, lockbox, gun case, cable lock, or trigger lock.
NC S.A.F.E. recommends following this safety checklist:
Have a method for effectively locking firearms.
Lock it up after every use.
Unload it when it’s not in use.
Store ammunition in a separate location when possible.
Keep the lock combination or location of a key secret from children and others who should not access firearms.
Lock firearms regardless of whether they’re at home or in a vehicle.
Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe County holds gun safety event amid youth gun crime increase
