‘Not one more.’ Teen anti-gun violence weekend event held in west Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, NC (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – Foods, great music, and crucial dialogue were being all experienced Saturday at the Meeting Position Church in West Charlotte. The group coming collectively to attempt to set an close to the modern string of gun violence that has plagued the space, with an function referred to as “Teens Versus Violence”.

The function was a joint work by Not Just one Extra, an group aimed at halting gun violence, and the Assembly Place Church. Organizers spoke to the group of kids and their parents about de-escalation techniques and about gun violence.

“We wished to enable our voices be listened to and make a variance,” claimed Pastor Vincent Riley.

Riley reported even nevertheless the event experienced been in the performs, the new killing of 3-calendar year-aged Asiah Figueroa before this thirty day period, re-affirmed the have to have for the occasion desired to be held.

“That angered me, angered a ton of men and women in our congregation and we wanted to make a assertion,” Riley.

For Kyle Goodman, founder of Not One More or NoMo for brief, the the latest killings sense particular. Which is since, in 2005, she dropped her son Gregory to gun violence.

“He was just 16 and he experienced so several plans, he preferred to go to Georgetown, a division a person college, and play ball and get his higher education education,” said Goodman. “I’m so mad about that bring about he was so on the ball and so completely ready to do that, but gun violence claimed you simply cannot go anyplace.”

That is why she hopes events like Saturdays will support steer teens down a various path. To opt for conflict resolution, as a substitute of picking up a gun and picking out violence.

“If we do something then he didn’t die for nothing at all,” Goodman mentioned.

It is a hope that Pastor Riley shares.

He states his church can be a safe haven for all those teens, offering a place to engage in basketball and come alongside one another. The trick is, he says, obtaining them to listen.

“If we can just save one everyday living then we feel it would have designed a big difference,” Riley reported.

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