Joseph Sabino Mistick: Stopping the shootings

In a scene that is far too familiar, over 100 citizens and community leaders gathered at Allegheny Center Alliance Church last week to pray for an end to the gun violence that is robbing us of our youth and putting our community in peril.

Three days earlier, two 17-year-old boys, Jaiden Brown and Mathew Steffy-Ross, were shot dead and nine people were wounded at a packed party — estimated at 200 young guests — at an Airbnb rental property not far from the church.

Pittsburghers awakened Easter morning to news of the mass shooting. Witnesses described partygoers jumping from second-story windows when the shooting began, running for their lives, leaving trails of blood among spent automatic rifle cartridges. And Pittsburgh led the national news programs for a senseless violent act.

But Pittsburgh is not alone when it comes to the rise of violent gun crime. Easter weekend was deadly everywhere. There was a mass shooting in Portland, Ore., killing one person and injuring three. There were two shootings in South Carolina, injuring at least 18 people. Altogether, there were 10 mass shootings spanning the nation.

Violent crime has surged in the United States since the summer of 2020, and it is hard to find the source of these troubles. According to a recent CNN report, crime is up in Republican and Democratic cities, in places with reform-minded prosecutors and law-and-order prosecutors, and in states that are tough on guns and not so tough on guns.

Many of us remember simpler times when petty social slights were settled out back of the neighborhood bar in a clumsily executed fistfight. The combatants would then return to the bar and buy each other a beer. For the most part, that worked, but those days are over. And while it was never as good as talking through your differences, it was a far better resolution than opening fire.

It may be that this quickdraw response to the slightest offense is just the most extreme example of our coarse civic behavior. Generally, we no longer treat each other with respect.

College students must now self-censor in class or risk becoming social outcasts. Controversial speakers are banned from university campuses. Reporters — and their families — are threatened when they report unpopular news. Public officials — and their families — receive death threats for doing their jobs.

But there is plenty for all of us to do in response to this violence. Those leaders who say gun violence should be treated as a public health issue are onto something, and they should step up their efforts to address the root causes of this epidemic. That will take time.

In the meantime, prosecutors and law enforcement — old-school and reformers both — must do whatever it takes to keep us safe. Those who shoot instead of talk must be stopped, even as our leaders and community groups and clergy work on those longer-term solutions.

And the rest of us must be less quick to condemn and more willing to let our disagreements pass. We can restore civility to our daily lives and lead by example.

Loleda Moman, one of the organizers of the prayer group at the church last week, summed up the responsibility that adults share to help kids get on the right track. As she said, “We need to model the way.”