‘Peer pressure’: Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer holds listening sessions on the causes of gang and gun violence

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“Nice kids who don’t want to be in the streets, but people who are in the streets, they’re pressuring other kids to be in the streets with them,” Quintin James said.

James is an 11-year-old from Wilmington. He said older teens are trying to push him and others into joining a gang. James and his father, Hykiem Purcell, gathered Tuesday at EastSide Charter School with other community activists, gun control advocates and gang interventionists to discuss Delaware’s gun violence problem.

Gov. Matt Meyer created the Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety office in May. At the time, his office said it would perform several functions, including coordinating existing state and local programs, promoting cross-agency collaboration and working with state lawmakers on developing gun control legislation.

The gun violence prevention office is in the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security. DSHS Deputy Secretary Vaughn Bond is its interim director.

Meyer and the office are hosting a series of meetings throughout the state.

“I’m hoping through this listening session, we can listen and learn from you and develop policies and programs and investments that lead the country and help really keep our kids and adults safe across Delaware,” Meyer said Tuesday.

Robin Brinkley White said she lost her son to gun violence in 2008 and knows the peer pressure young men face.

“I had to go collect him up off the streets,” she said. “Once it gets a hold of them, what are you gonna do?”

Her son was 25 years old when he died, she said, after his life started moving in a positive direction.

Wilmington residents said there are a lot of reasons why kids take to the streets, including poverty, drugs, social media and a lack of safe spaces for teens after school and on weekends.

Bond said part of the problem is the lack of a positive male influence in these teens’ lives.

“There’s something about a father, a male figure who’s related to a young person, taking on that responsibility and saying, ‘If you’re the father, I’m going to raise you right,’” he said. “If you’re the uncle, the father’s incarcerated, ‘I’m going to raise you right,’ stepping in.”

Coalition for a Safer Delaware Executive Director Traci Murphy said the societal issues raised by participants are important. But she said it’s the gun dealers who perpetuate crime by failing to do background checks and act as responsible business owners who are contributing to the gun violence.

“Someone makes money when your kids die,” she said. “Who is it? That’s how we get to the root of the problem. There is an industry out there that is perpetrating violence because they are making money from it, and we cannot forget that.”

The next listening session is next month in Georgetown.

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.