
Steering young men away from a life with guns
CBSN
Each purple ribbon hanging outside the First and Franklin Presbyterian Church, in Baltimore, represents a life lost to gun violence in this city over just seven months. Many of them, too many, were young men. And according to Jamal West, who heads up youth work for a program called Roca, the number of those who were white was probably zero.
Koppel asked, "How did they end up dead?"
"It's a kill-or-be-killed city," replied West, who knew many of the people the ribbons represent. "It's what goes on here. They'd rather shoot than fight. In the old days, it's easy to take one on the chin, fight back, shake hands, and it's over. But now these days, with so much access to firearms, it's easier to shoot than be embarrassed about a fight on Instagram."