SACRAMENTO -- Sacramento city council member Larry Carr held a gathering Wednesday morning at the Meadowview Community Center to talk about gun violence.
"As we've seen through the last year, it's been something that has plagued a lot of our streets," Sacramento Area Congregations Together spokesperson Ryan McClinton said. "It led to a lot of bloodshed and life loss that needs to be addressed."
The Sacramento City Council voted recently to adopt a controversial program that offers a stipend to known troublemakers in the city to put down their guns and stay peaceful.
McClinton thinks the program, known as Advance Peace, is a good start.
A big issue for Carr is that recent gang-related gun violence often puts innocent bystanders at risk.
Deborah Nelson is all too familiar with gun violence. It's been seven years since her daughter was killed in the barbershop shooting on Stockton Boulevard. Monique Nelson was shielding her 2-year-old son when bullets, not intended for her, came flying by.
"The real danger is many times they don't hit their target and hit innocent individuals as in the case of Miss Nelson's daughter," Carr said. "Every life is precious and we have too many people in our city, in our state, in our country getting shot. So we want to stop that."