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Why are so many young people carrying guns?

St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

While the overall rate of homicides has not risen, gun violence in Baltimore city is affecting young people at levels not seen in a decade. Why are so many young people picking up weapons?

A new study from the Center for Justice Innovation, titled “Two Battlefields: Opps, Cops and NYC Gun Culture,” seeks an answer.

Two of the researchers on the team behind the report join us to talk about its findings. Rachel Swaner is Senior Director of Research & Policy and Basaime Spate is a community research coordinator with the Center for Justice Innovation.

Later in the show, we bring the lessons from Brooklyn, New York, to Brooklyn, south Baltimore, where a shocking mass shooting at the beginning of July underscored the epidemic of gun violence searing the country and the city.

Joining us to talk about anti-violence work is Freedom Jones, Director of Community Violence Intervention Programs at Jill Fox Center for Hope at LifeBridge Health. Freedom oversees part of Safe Streets, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement’s anti-street violence program. Antonio Stewart, a violence interrupter with Safe Streets, joins us, as well.

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Sam Bermas-Dawes is a producer for Midday.