ATLANTA — The leader of a group that works to keep young people away from guns says it’s time schools start teaching kids about gun safety. That comes after a 13-year-old was killed in a home while visiting a friend.
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The boy’s uncle says his sudden death is hitting the family very hard.
“For a young kid like that to die, at a young age like that...” Thomas Wyche couldn’t finish his sentence, thinking about how he would never see his 13-year-old nephew alive again.
He is having a hard time understanding how his nephew went to stay overnight with a friend, and now he is dead.
Police say the teenager was shot to death at a home on Lindsay Street just before four Tuesday morning.
Wyche says his nephew was a good kid who loved playing his games.
“He didn’t play with guns or nothing like that. So until the medical examiner says something, they try to say like it’s a suicide. But I don’t believe that. We don’t believe that,” Wyche said.
There have been several young people killed or wounded by gunfire recently. Just last week, Channel 2 Action News reported on a 14-year-old boy shot to death in Stockbridge. A 12-year-old in the same home was wounded.
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Channel 2’s Tom Jones reached out to Gary Davis with Next Level Boys Academy. His organization works with young men to keep them away from guns and violence and provides them with male guidance and mentorship.
Jones asked him why there are so many young people so close to guns.
“I just think a lot of this is a lack of education,” Davis responded.
Davis says we’ve reached a point where schools have to start teaching about gun safety and the consequences of guns. He says schools need to start early.
“So let’s get gun safety, gun education on the early childhood level, and I think we can solve a lot of this,” Davis said.
Davis says parents also need to educate their kids about gun safety and make sure all guns are locked up.
Police say their investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
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