On August 23, 2018, as summer break came to a closing, 138 teenagers were reported to have been shot in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia Police Department officials reported a jump of nearly 40 percent of teen shootings since last year, 2017.  Many of these teenage shooting victims are shot by other teenagers such as Kristian Marche, an 18-year-old track and field star who was headed to Penn State University on an athletic scholarship.  Marche was murdered on August 22, 2018, days before his departure to college.  16-year-old Taron Small and 15-year-old Byron Vinson were arrested and charged with Marche’s murder.

Not only does Kristian Marche’s homicide exemplify teenagers killing teenagers, but it more specifically shows Black-on-Black crime, an essential problem in America, according to Sebastian Gorka.  Nearly 75 percent of African American teenagers are shot by other African Americans in Philadelphia.  Such shootings are often caused by social media disputes, gang violence, jealousy, or greed (robberies).  No matter what the cause is, guns  should not be the answer, by any means.

“Our big issue is black African gun crime against black Africans,” he said. “It is a tragedy… Black young men are murdering each other by the bushel.” – Sebastian Gorka, The Washington Post

I agree with Gorka.  As the “largest racial minority group in America,” African Americans are supposed stick together and the Black-on-Black crime is a substantial barrier.  In order to bring awareness to gun violence in Philadelphia, we must start small.  Keeping guns out of the young African American men in Philadelphia would be a small step into the large issue of gun violence in our city.