PITTSBURGH POLICE CHIEF LARRY SCIROTTO, shown here at Bethel AME Church in the Hill District, Aug. 21. It was the first of five public meetings with the Chief, hosted by the Black Political Empowerment Project. The next meeting will be held in early September. (Photo by J.L. Martello)
There has never been a period in the U.S. when so many young people have had such wide access to guns.
The Pittsburgh area is no exception.
Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor, Ed Gainey, talks about it constantly. How are the young people getting these guns? If a person in Pennsylvania cannot legally purchase a firearm until adult age (18), how are 14, 15, 16, 17-year-olds across the region getting guns faster than they can get a bag of candy?
The New Pittsburgh Courier spoke with Pittsburgh Chief of Police Larry Scirotto, a few weeks into his tenure as leader of the second-largest police force in the state (omitting county forces), behind Philadelphia. Scirotto was sworn-in on June 7.
“Young-on-young (violence) would, in our youth, fistfight, but now, young-on-young have access to weapons that we didn’t have then,” Scirotto told the Courier exclusively. “So now you’re talking about a 14- or 15-year-old that has a firearm but doesn’t have the mental maturity to regulate his emotions and use the firearm as his fist. So the damage is done just by having access to the weapon.”
RIMEL WILLIAMSON AND NAZIR PARKER, TWO 17-YEAR-OLDS, WERE KILLED IN BRADDOCK ON SUNDAY NIGHT, AUG. 27. THEY WERE WOODLAND HILLS HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS.
Scirotto, who’s had decades of experience on the streets as a Pittsburgh officer, said it’s the “straw purchases” that is the primary way young people get access to guns. Straw purchases are when a person who is legally able to purchase guns soon sells those guns to people in primarily inner-city neighborhoods. “A lot of people who are victims of gun violence or offenders of gun violence, they couldn’t go to a Dick’s Sporting Goods or a firearms store and purchase a gun,” Scirotto said.
Why? For one, they’re not old enough, and also, many offenders of gun violence “have a criminal record that would preclude them from purchasing a firearm.”
So who are these “straw purchasers?” Scirotto said a lot of them are “chemically dependent,” or in other words, trading the guns for drugs.
Scirotto also said straw purchasers are oftentimes people from suburban areas with little to no regular gun violence.
“From just experience, you see straw purchases being the main conduit for weapons coming into the city streets,” Scirotto told the Courier exclusively.
PITTSBURGH POLICE CHIEF LARRY SCIROTTO (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
But there’s another way young people get their hands on guns—theft from vehicles.
Gun sales are skyrocketing, with 60 million guns sold from 2020 to 2022, according to data from The Trace, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that tracks gun violence. And people from all walks of life and ethnicities are purchasing guns legally these days, though the percentage is still male-dominated.
With guns seemingly everywhere, Scirotto told the Courier that “legal (gun) owners are also very careless with their firearms, in that they’re leaving them in their car. Who would suggest you do such a thing? But I can’t tell you how many ‘theft from vehicles’ include firearms. The number is high enough that it should feel very uncomfortable; responsible gun ownership is failing in that regard, but they can go purchase another firearm (if theirs is stolen).”
Cara Cruz, public information officer for the city’s public safety department, told the Courier that approximately 470 guns were reported stolen to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police in 2022. So far in 2023 through the first few weeks of August, 250 firearms were reported stolen.
Two 17-year-olds were shot and killed late Sunday night, Aug. 27, in Braddock, Rimel Lamour Williamson and Nazir Parker. Both were seniors at Woodland Hills High School. A third teenager was shot in the incident that occurred near Margaretta and Center streets; that teen is a student at Propel Schools.
It’s an unfortunate reality happening in the Pittsburgh area and across the country; young people dying at the hands of gun violence. Going back to just the month of May, eight young people age 18 or under have died in Allegheny County via gun violence; Dominic Sanner (16), Sir Morgan (18), Derrick Harris (15), Damien Jackson (15), Brandon Thomas (17), Andrew Smith (17), and the two aforementioned Woodland Hills seniors.
Pittsburgh and Allegheny County police have arrested a suspect in some, but not all, of the shooting deaths of the aforementioned young people. What’s consistent in the region and throughout the country is that, oftentimes, those responsible for the shooting deaths of teens are usually other teens or young adults.
“You can get into the values and the way people see the world today, but sometimes when I’m talking to these young people, it’s almost as if they don’t think it’s reality. They don’t see it as real,” Scirotto told the Courier. “It’s almost like this video game to them, people don’t look like humans to them in this weird way. It’s like a video game, ‘Oh it’s not that serious,’ firing a gun may not be that big of a deal,” Scirotto said some teens believe.
Also, teens don’t feel safe, Scirotto said, “and they’ve watched their friends or family get killed or injured by gun violence. The only thing they feel they are able to do is then arm themselves…lacking the emotional maturity to make decisions with this weapon.”
TIM STEVENS
Scirotto is meeting with community members via a series of meetings set up by Tim Stevens of the Black Political Empowerment Project. It’s all about the Chief getting firsthand information from the public on exactly what the community wants to see in Pittsburgh policing. It’s up to the Chief to chart a course of action that, combined with the community’s input, will get the violent offenders off the streets. The first meeting was held on Aug. 21 at Bethel AME Church, in the Hill District. The second meeting will be held in early September; Stevens will make an announcement in the coming days as to the exact date, time and location.
Scirotto did tell the Courier that part of his strategy is giving people choices. One can either be involved in gun violence and be aggressively pursued and arrested by police, or one can choose to be connected with social services, programs and other resources “to better your life and remove yourself from that,” he said.
“For people that, services won’t work for or they refuse, it’s such a small percentage of individuals,” Scirotto added. “We can focus our law enforcement efforts on them. But for that larger group that’s involved by association, familial or geographic or neighborhood, we have to provide options so they have a choice to do something positive with their life, and that’s the strategy.”
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