ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Thirteen people were shot in a total of 10 separate shootings this past weekend. This is causing many in the community to stand up and do what they can to help get guns off the streets.
Gary Mervis is the chairman of the Project Exile advisory board. An organization that helps get illegal guns off the streets in efforts to reduce shootings and homicides. The group wants to stop deadly shootings.
“Once you pull out that gun and you pull the trigger you can’t take back that bullet,” said Mervis. “I think it is also important for people to understand is that, every human interaction is automatically escalated to a life or death situation when a gun is present,” said Mervis.
10 shootings happened over the 4th of July holiday weekend in the City of Rochester. A triple shooting Monday night in the city’s 19th Ward that left one man dead. Mervis said the guns used in shootings are usually stolen.
“It’s usually people that find a way in being possession of a gun, that really shouldn’t have a gun. Because they lost their right to legally possess one,” said Mervis.
Mervis hopes conversations will continue to get illegal guns off the streets and out of the hands of dangerous people.
Project Exile was started in Rochester in 1998 by the then acting United States Attorney for the Western District of New York Denise O’Donnell.
