GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro police say homicides are up more than 80 percent from this time last year. And Greensboro’s representative in Congress wants to know why. Kathy Manning spent the week visiting National Night Out events and talking with Guilford County law enforcement and community leaders.
She talked with WFMY News 2’s Ben Briscoe about what she found, and how she plans to help.
“I think there are a variety of things we need to do. First of all, I personally think we need to have universal background checks," Manning said, "Everyone who buys a gun from whatever source ought to have to go through a background check.”
But many criminals don’t buy their guns, according to police. Even in the small city of Graham police say they had at least 12 guns stolen from cars last year.
"I was just thinking I haven’t even mentioned that. I have signed on to a wide variety of gun bills and several of them include gun safety," Manning said. "One bill I signed would require anyone whose gun is stolen to report that the gun is stolen to report that the gun was stolen within 24 hours of police. "
"The second thing is there are a variety of bills I signed on to that require safe storage of guns in cars. Because one of the things we’ve learned in some of the research we’ve done is that one of the places guns are most readily stolen is from people’s cars," she added.
Leading Republicans have indicated they think there are other ways to solve violent crime besides more gun restrictions. Some Republicans point to a landmark gun control that was already passed one year ago which enhanced background checks for young gun buyers and provided $15 billion for issues like school security and mental health treatments. Senator Thom Tillis from North Carolina was a co-sponsor of that bill. At the time it passed, he said "I'm proud of the fact that we were able to pass the biggest investment in mental health in history. We all agreed that behavioral health had to be the foundation of everything we did."
There is one place where there could be common ground in DC.
Manning and Republicans both support more violence prevention programs and dispute resolution programs to help young people learn how to resolve conflict without resorting to violence.
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