Photo: Junfu Han ~ USA TODAY NETWORK
April 18, 2023 ~ After six shootings over the weekend, a Detroit City Council member is looking to enact gun-free zones downtown.
City Council member Mary Waters introduced a measure during a council meeting Tuesday that would ban guns in Greektown, the riverfront, Hart Plaza, and Spirit Plaza. She asked the city’s Law Department to explore the possibility of this measure.
Over the weekend, there were five shootings in Greektown and another by the riverfront that left two people dead.
PODCASTS:
April 19, 2023 ~ 760 WJR Senior News Analyst Lloyd Jackson talks with Guy Gordon about a proposal in Detroit City Council to enact gun-free zones in some parts of Downtown Detroit.
April 20, 2023 ~ 760 WJR News Analyst Lloyd Jackson tells Kevin Dietz and Tom Jordan about the Detroit City Council weighing a proposal to ban guns in parts of downtown after six shootings over the weekend.
(CONTINUED) “As we deal with unacceptable violence, we must deal with unacceptable poverty, systemic racism, illiteracy, and disintegration of Black families resulting in the streets raising our children with street values that do not give a damn about human life, respect, or love for self and one another,” Waters said during the city council meeting.
She added that parents should face consequences if they fail to stop their children from accessing guns that were not locked away or for not enforcing curfews.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said this proposal would conflict with state law, since the state only allows gun-free zones at defined places like churches, schools, stadiums, and places where the primary source of income is the sale of alcohol.
However, he said that there is nothing stopping the city from putting more metal detectors in public spaces to curb illegal guns being carried, something he expects to see more of.
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