Mulroy addresses gun violence in Shelby County

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - June marks National Gun Violence Awareness Month, and Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy announced he’s calling on the state and community to do more to stop the violence.

DA Mulroy says data shows gun violence and deaths in Memphis have increased each and every year since 2016.

“Our office is trying to do things different from what’s been done in the last decade in order to address this problem,” said Mulroy.

This year, there have been 74 cases of unintentional shootings involving children, including three teenage boys injured in an accidental shooting in Orange Mound on Monday and a three-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in Collierville on Saturday.

“It’s a tragedy when a child is playing with a gun and an accidental shooting results,” said Mulroy.

For this reason, Mulroy says he wants to reduce the growing number of loaded and unlocked guns ending up in the hands of repeat offenders or children.

This upcoming special session in August, Mulroy is asking state officials to do two things to help reduce gun violence in Shelby County.

“First to repeal permit less carry and reinstate, sensible handgun, carry permit regulation, and second to consider extreme risk orders in protection,” he said.

Mulroy said while it’s going to take action from state legislators to reduce gun violence, it will also take a collaborative community effort to put the guns down and be a part of the solution.

“We can’t have the blame game, we can’t have people pointing fingers at each other, we all need to work together on this gun violence crisis,” said Mulroy.

On Saturday, July 15, DA Mulroy’s office is partnering with the Memphis-Shelby Crime Commission to sponsor a Walk Against Gun Violence event at 8:30 a.m. on Western Park Drive.

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