Randall Woodfin, the Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, made an emotional 30-minute plea to residents Tuesday, addressing gun culture after the city surpassed a decades-long homicide record this year.
Surrounded by 145 firearms confiscated by police—representing each of the homicides in Burhimgham in 2024—Woodfin implored state legislators to help tackle the city's rampant gun violence.
"Even if I give you more officers on our streets, people are still legally allowed to drive around with these types of guns," Woodfin said, gesturing to the guns in front of him.
Birmingham saw its 145th homicide on Sunday when Justin Lee Henry Grant, 33, was found dead inside an SUV after allegedly being ambushed, possibly by multiple shooters.
The city's highest recent homicide count was 144 in 2022, surpassing the 1991 record of 141, with 135 homicides reported in 2023.
On Tuesday, Damien McDaniel, 22, was arrested for capital murder in a July nightclub mass shooting in Birmingham that killed four and injured 10. He is also accused of three other fatal shootings in August and September.
Another man, Hatarius Woods, 27, was also charged with capital murder in connection with the July mass shooting. Woods and McDaniel are allegedly responsible for approximately 30 percent of all homicides that took place in the city between July and September, according to the Birmingham Police Department.
"If I was a betting man, I would believe the residents of Birmingham have had enough of this and want to see more gun safety laws in place that protect people in Birmingham, but that has to come from a level higher than me," Woodfin said Tuesday.
Woodfin also said he knows some of these shootings happen because of "human behavior" and residents taking their "beef" with someone too far. In addition to using a nearly $16 million plan to tackle the Birmingham PD's staffing shortage, Woodfin said the city will continue to make conflict resolution available for our young people.
"We do all this dumb s*** online, and then we try to live it out in reality. Then your mama got a T-shirt on, your friends and family members, baby mama, got a T-shirt on cuz of some really dumb decisions."
Woodfin continued, "Law policing can't stop all of this. There is no Superman. No Superman is coming to save Birmingham.
"More laws won't prevent every homicide. More police will not prevent every homicide. What can prevent more homicides is a change of hearts and behaviors."
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