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An Editorial Opinion of The Selma Times-Journal

We have had another shooting incident that has claimed the life of a young man.

This time, the victim was just 23 years old.

“He was gunned down and left for dead. He was 23 years old and he didn’t get to live his life,” said Davida, the sister of Daquand Hall, who was pronounced dead at the scene of the crime, on a GoFundMe post.

We have had too many killings and shooting incidents this year and over the previous years. Something needs to happen to help with this.

It is unclear exactly what the root cause of the incidents is. It is likely a multi-faceted problem. There is no silver bullet that will stop it, although anything could help it.

Obviously, decreasing the access to guns would help, especially either assault-type rifles or semi-automatic weapons. The Glock switch ban is a move in the right direction.

More could be done, such as re-instituting the gun permit. Police could then confiscate any weapons that persons have not registered with the Sheriff’s Department and make arrests on that. Right now, police cannot do much if a person has a gun illegally especially during a traffic stop.

The cameras the city put up have helped. It can be at least a deterrent, and they could potentially use them to catch criminals when crime is committed.

We don’t have to do it all at once, and there is no way to implement it one fell swoop. But we have to take another step to prevent this from happening again.

We know the community will step up and support the family in their time of need, but we need to take the next step in ending this gun violence epidemic.