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Boots on the Ground in the Fight Against Gun Violence Boots on the Ground in the Fight Against Gun Violence

By Mikhala Armstrong

MIKHALA ARMSTRONG: Gun violence is all around you…
In the stories that make headlines and appear on the evening news.
In the streets in your neighborhood with memorials for lost lives to be remembered.
Like this one for two young men and a 12-year-old child.
For resident Clifford Ryan, gun violence is not just what you see on the news. It is something he lives with every day.
CLIFFORD RYAN: I had a son shot and killed, so I know what that hurt, pain, and anger is like.
ARMSTRONG: His son Duriel was shot and killed in July of 1999 at 17 years old. Ryan remembers the scene over 20 years ago as the day that changed his life.
RYAN: A lot of people don’t make it through it, and those that do are trying to channel that energy on a positive level such as what you see me doing.
ARMSTRONG: Ryan now walks the same streets to spread awareness in the community. He started an anti-violence organization called “OG’s Against Violence” Hoping to prevent the kind of violence that killed his son.
RYAN: It takes a special person to do this, not everybody is willing to get out here and do this, and I’m trying to find more individuals like me, and that’s like finding a needle in a haystack.
ARMSTRONG: In 2021, Syracuse had a record high of 32 homicides. 78 percent of those homicides were gun-related.
And as of April 2022, Syracuse has three homicides. Numbers Ryan tries to decrease himself even if it puts his life at risk…
RYAN: They have that gun on them while I’m talking to them, and I’m talking to them, and I’m occupying them for two or three hours. Just having a conversation with them and in that time stopping them from going to do shootings.
ARMSTRONG: But some feel it takes another approach to decrease violence in urban communities, like Syracuse University marriage and family instructor Brandon Hollie. Who researched the effect of gun violence in the black community and says therapy is a solution…
BRANDON HOLLIE: These larger structural issues or these deep-seated things, they really can be fixed if you just have the avenue and a platform to really talk about what’s going on for you.
ARMSTRONG: But Ryan says his boots-on-the-ground approach to gun violence makes the most sudden change…
RYAN: You want to go straight to the root of the problem, the guy or the young person who’s pulling the trigger, and you want to connect with him.
ARMSTRONG: Ryan speaks at schools and works with children to help with conflict resolution. Jikeem Barnett almost was in a fight and says Ryan showed him how to turn a new leaf.
JIKEEM BARNETT: I don’t want to get kicked out of here cause if I get kicked out of here, it’s going to be bad. I don’t want to go to the streets or none of that…I just want to play basketball.
ARMSTRONG: Ryan plans to keep up the fight to end gun violence.
RYAN: It’s sad, you know…the stuff that’s going on in our community. That’s why you know I get out here and try to help save some lives.
ARMSTRONG: With hopes, his actions help make sure no one has to place more memorials because of gun violence in this community. For NCC news, I’m Mikhala Armstrong

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The effects of gun violence are all around you: in your neighborhood with memorials, headlines in the news, and now gun violence accounts for 43 percent of deaths in the United States, according to the CDC.

Syracuse Resident Clifford Ryan is doing something about it with his boots on the ground. Ryan is the founder of OG’s Against Violence, a non-profit organization that he started where Ryan goes to communities of violence and talks to community members about conflict resolution strategies and the problem of violence. The organization is inspired by his personal experience with gun violence with the loss of his son, Duriel Ryan, at 17 years old in 1999.

Ryan relates to community members because of the loss of his son.

“I know what that hurt, pain and anger is like,” Ryan said.

In 2021, Syracuse had a record high of 32 homicides. 78% of those homicides were gun-related, and as of 2022, Syracuse has three homicides.

Ryan has made it his life mission to decrease the violence in communities, even in situations that have nearly cost him his life.

“They have that gun on them while I’m talking to them, and I’m talking to them, and I’m occupying them for two or three hours. Just having a conversation with them and in that time stopping them from going to do shootings,” Ryan said.

The fight to end gun violence is one Ryan is committed to with hopes his actions help make sure gun violence no longer affects this community.

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