Speaker 1: Three people are dead after a shooting in a Torrance.
Speaker 2: California, more than people have been shot shot shooting security.
Speaker 2: I really don't like that. I think that this is
Speaker 2: not the way to solve a dispute.
Speaker 1: This is not the way to deal with the fact
Speaker 1: that somebody has dishue.
Speaker 2: A new study shows that the city of LA has
Speaker 2: seen three hundred less murders than in the last five years.
Speaker 2: Now that number of deaths is down eighteen percent from
Speaker 2: December of twenty twenty three. For much of the twenty tens,
Speaker 2: annual homicides range from two hundred and fifty to three hundred. LA,
Speaker 2: like other major cities across the country, saw deadly gun
Speaker 2: violence surge during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: You make that decision to pick up a gun and
Speaker 1: to take another light, you add more problems for yourself,
Speaker 1: first of all life.
Speaker 2: But that narrative is starting to take a turn in
Speaker 2: a positive direction. The charge is led by rapper Iced Tea,
Speaker 2: along with LA filmmaker Terry Carney, Sr. With a new
Speaker 2: documentary titled Put the Guns Down, A World have Pandemic,
Speaker 2: featuring first hand accounts from families affected. The film challenges
Speaker 2: conventional narratives and shifts the focus to the root causes
Speaker 2: of these tragedies. Carney has personally been impacted by gun violence,
Speaker 2: including the time he lost his very own brother to
Speaker 2: a senseless shooting.
Speaker 1: He was murdered. He was going to school to become
Speaker 1: a horse jockey, and he wanted to come back to
Speaker 1: the city and hang out with some of his old
Speaker 1: friends and stuff like that, and he was in private
Speaker 1: school and stuff. So he came up for a weekend,
Speaker 1: and believe it or not, he was murdered the day
Speaker 1: that he came up to hang out with its friends
Speaker 1: and stuff. They blew his loans through his back. With
Speaker 1: AK forty seven, the.
Speaker 2: Film takes an unfiltered look at the mental health struggles
Speaker 2: feeling gun violence.
Speaker 1: We just had so many murders that was taking place
Speaker 1: all over the city, so we just felt like we
Speaker 1: needed something to do to try to help stop some
Speaker 1: of these murders.
Speaker 2: And Carney isn't wrong. According to data from the LAPD,
Speaker 2: homicides rose to over four hundred killings in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: when the pandemic was at its peak. It's easy to
Speaker 2: draw a gun now to shoot somebody, and they don't
Speaker 2: even think about the cost courses still as too late.
Speaker 2: We didn't foresee the future death incarceration. It was much
Speaker 2: worse in the nineteen eighties and early nineties, mostly because
Speaker 2: of gang violence. Karney grew up in LA during the
Speaker 2: eighties and nineties and recollected how bad it actually was.
Speaker 2: By nineteen ninety three, LA had nearly eleven hundred murders
Speaker 2: for the year. Carney credits the major decrease in gun
Speaker 2: violence among young people with documenting the real life conversations
Speaker 2: of those that used to participate in the epidemic.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of the ogs from different street
Speaker 1: gangs that supported this film, as well as a lot
Speaker 1: of the community activists that used to be ex gang
Speaker 1: bangers and stuff that's given back to the city, and
Speaker 1: they have created a lot of different nonprofit organizations and
Speaker 1: we all working together.
Speaker 2: Carney also says that it's really been a three sixty
Speaker 2: turnaround with some of the gang bangers, ogs and former
Speaker 2: criminals getting in front of kids and young people and
Speaker 2: making them understand there's a better way.
Speaker 1: They're telling the kids it ain't about that. It's about
Speaker 1: you getting education, It's about you making someone yourself. We
Speaker 1: even have some of our guys in the penitentiary that
Speaker 1: once the kids is incocerated, they're turning them around in
Speaker 1: the penitentiary system.
Speaker 2: Right now, he says, for the most part, a lot
Speaker 2: of community leaders that are helping kids put their guns down,
Speaker 2: our ex gang bangers who in a sense are self
Speaker 2: policing their neighborhoods in streets.
Speaker 1: Been law enforcement, and a lot of authority figures is
Speaker 1: allowing us to work for our communities and do what
Speaker 1: we need to do to get these kids turned around.
Speaker 2: With nearly fifty awards, Carney is taking the show on
Speaker 2: the road as he kicks off his official college tour.
Speaker 2: He says, what's happening in La happens in other neighborhoods also.
Speaker 1: It used to being just broken and homes and you
Speaker 1: know a lot of different things. But now you have
Speaker 1: a new type of kids that's out here running the streets.
Speaker 1: And it's not just the urban areas. This in every community,
Speaker 1: every neighborhood. Kids are at the point to where they
Speaker 1: just want to do what they want to do. And
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want people out there to be
Speaker 1: thinking this is just a South central LA thing. This
Speaker 1: is a Woodland Hills, this is a Beverly Hills. This
Speaker 1: is you know, these bullets out here, they don't have
Speaker 1: eyes on them, they don't discriminate against nobody, And it's
Speaker 1: happening in every community right now out here in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles and in other states as well, in countries.
Speaker 2: It's like seeing a monster in through gun violence. We
Speaker 2: do he create a monster after on monster, because it
Speaker 2: could create a cula. Carney's efforts to bring light to
Speaker 2: gun violence through his film makes its college campus debut
Speaker 2: on February twenty sixth in Victorville at Victor Valley College.
Speaker 2: The film is in partnership with a nonprofit DVL Project
Speaker 2: and the Victor Valley College's EUMOJA program, which dedicates itself
Speaker 2: to enhancing the cultural and educational experiences of students. Following
Speaker 2: the film, a Q and a panel with some of
Speaker 2: those featured in the documentary will take place.
Speaker 1: We touch bases on every aspect, from mental health to
Speaker 1: gun violence to what works and what helps in the community.
Speaker 2: The screening and panel discussion is free to attend and
Speaker 2: open to the public. In studio. Andrew Caravella KFI News