PANAMA CITY — Community organizations and leaders put their heads together Saturday to brainstorm potential solutions in response to the alarming rise in gun violence.
“Our aim today was to find out how you stop the violence and construct conflict resolution,” said Greg Dossie of the Bay County Rainbow Push Coalition.
Dossie said in the past 30 days there have been seven gun-related homicides and one suicide in the Panama City area.
The meeting at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center attracted a small crowd of concerned residents.
Frances Rios told the panel about her struggle to find activities to keep her children, who are interested in music and singing, busy during the summer.
“We need to come up with programs that bring out these gifts,” Rios said.
One success of the forum was that Rios and others learned that such programs actually are abundant in the community. The issue is that well-known programs fill up quickly while smaller organizations get little turnout even when they use radio, social media and fliers to advertise.
The panel and visitors agreed that better communication in both directions is needed to take advantage of the community’s resources.
Panama City Commissioner Mike Nichols said he would like to see more specialized programs for children and more jobs to keep teens busy during the summer.
Dossie said the partnering organizations at the meeting would work with the city to implement solutions and solve problems with existing programs. For example, they are working with lawmakers on an idea to grant amnesty to convicted felons who risk being arrested if they show up to turn in a firearm at a gun buy-back event.
The discussion occurred on the heels of the shooting death of a 20-year-old Panama City Beach man early Thursday.
The event’s organizers challenged the public to “get their hands dirty” to deter gun violence by getting involved in the life of a child or neighborhood, no matter how small the effort.
While they are there to support the community, Panama City Commissioner John Kady said solutions to the problem do not really lie with the government.
“It’s in this community,” he said.