DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Two hundred and forty three.
That is the number of mass shootings that have occurred thus far in 2022, Channel 2′s Ashli Lincoln learned from the Gun Violence Archive.
This weekend, gunfire rang out in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where 14 people were shot near a club.
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What is the solution?
Data shows that the gunmen who often commit these mass shootings are under the age of 25.
Channel 2 spoke with a crime prevention specialist who is doing his part in preventing teens in that age group from committing those types of acts.
“We need all hands on deck,” said Orin Hudson.
They’re back to the headlines, according to Hudson, who called these shootings, alarming.
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“We’re definitely at a critical moment, people are shooting, you’re going to shoot your boss, you’re going to shoot your doctor, you’re just going to pull your gun out,” he said.
Hudson is a retired law enforcement officer who served a state trooper for seven years.
He has dedicated the last 20 years of his life preventing teens from picking up guns.
“All I’m teaching young people is to pause and ponder,” he said.
His annual crime prevention summer camp for troubled teens starts Monday, but this year, he says he’s shifting his focus to address concerns surrounding mass shootings.
“Impulse control, we have to teach people to pause and reflect,” he said.
The Gun Violence Archive, an independent gun data collection organization, defines a mass shooting as any shooting where at least four people are shot, including survivors.
“Action without thinking is a cause for every problem,” Hudson said.
Hudson says programs focusing on mass shootings are important as recent data shows mass shooter assailants are getting younger and younger.
The New York Times reports six of the nine deadliest mass shootings in the U.S. were by people who were 21 and younger.
Both the Buffalo supermarket shooting and the Uvalde, Texas school massacre were committed by 18 year olds.
“It’s critical, because the brain is not fully developed,” Hudson said.
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Hudson says that while debates over gun laws and mental illness reform continues, he is doing his part with his free eight-week program.
“We need a plethora of programs, because you don’t know what may ring the bell for the child,” Hudson said. “You go to the jail and ask people why are you here, and they say I did the first thing that popped in my head.”
In 2022, 243 shootings have happened so far.
Last year, more than 600 mass shootings were reported, according the Gun Violence Archive.
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