Here's DeVone Boggan, the CEO of Advance Peace, talking about the program on the radio. Here's The Daily Show piece on it.
The program was started in Richmond, CA, and expanded to Sacramento and soon to be expanded to Stockton, CA. It includes mentorship, "transformative travel" (where gang members are paid for to travel to see the world beyond their city block) and paid incentives. It boasts a 71% decrease in gun violence in Richmond since starting this program in 2009.
johnnyFive, rd95, goobster (with one of whom I had a fruitless — on my part — debate about preventing gun violence, but I can't remember with whom)
Really glad to see programs like this getting traction, successes, and publicity. That's excellent.
Gun ownership. Gun control. Reducing gun violence. Giving sad white men different outlets for their frustration.
All of these are related - but separate - issues.
Cars are highly regulated tools that require a license to operate, insurance, etc. But they can be just as deadly in a crowd, when operated by an angry white man.
Reducing gun violence by giving people a wider view of the world, is a great program, and is definitely going to have benefits for the onesy-twosy violence of drive by killings, etc. It's not going to stop Dylan Klebold, or any other middle-class white male loser with access to guns.