Louisiana has a problem with violent crime.
Shocker, right? Check your local crime briefs. Or Nola.com — check its crime section.
A man was shot in the neck, and two men were shot and killed Saturday in New Orleans. A man was shot in the back Sunday during an attempted robbery, and two men were shot to death Monday.
Those are just a few of the crimes you’ll find. The list goes on and on, showing that our great state has some improving to do.
But the violence isn’t just a current trend of 2012. Our state has been one of the most violent for as long as anyone can remember.
In fact, Sportsman’s Paradise ranked as 2010’s most violent state by the Institute for Economics and Peace.
In 2010, Louisiana registered 510 murders.
This ranking, in part, was based on the general availability of small arms.
Though all the statistics aren’t in yet, it looks like 2011 was just as violent.
Baton Rouge saw firearms involved in 59 out of 64 murders, 469 assaults and 535 robberies, said Sgt. Don Kelly, BRPD Media Relations Director.
New Orleans experienced a whopping 199 murders — a 14 percent increase from last year, according to The Times-Picayune. I’m willing to bet most were from guns.
In fact, New Orleans’ unrelenting murder rate has caused New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to look to other states to alleviate the murder rate.
On Wednesday — after a man was killed trying to thwart a carjacking — Landrieu sent letters to municipal judges and criminal courts asking them to implement $30,000 bonds for defendants with weapons charges.
This strategy was used in St. Louis, and the city attributed its implementation to a 20 percent drop in murder rate.
“This is about having an immediate consequence to a bad choice,” Landrieu told The Times-Picayune.
If it works in New Orleans, the rest of the state should follow suit.
But one reform isn’t enough. Other things must change.
First, there are too many guns on the street.
So many that BRPD held “Gas for Guns” for the second year
in November to get guns off the street. They received 165 guns, including a few sawed-off shotguns.
While a nice effort to lessen the amount of guns on the street, I seriously doubt criminals turned any in — unless, of course, they needed gas money.
One blatantly obvious way to solve this problem may be to require firearms to be registered when purchased.
Right now, all it takes is a background check and maybe 30 minutes of your time to walk away with a shiny new gun.
Trust me, I’ve done it. It’s way too easy.
And registering guns will allow police to know who has a gun and who doesn’t, letting them know what they’re getting into when investigating.
Next, Louisiana’s big cities should implement something similar to Chicago’s CeaseFire plan, which has lead to significant decreases in violent crime in Chicago neighborhoods.
CeaseFire places street-savvy people into violent areas where they try to settle disputes and help to calm people’s nerves after murders to prevent retaliatory violence.
New Orleans has been trying to get this program going. Baton Rouge should test it out as well.
Finally — take note Bobby Jindal — Louisiana’s public education needs to improve. This is the clearest solution of all.
Louisiana’s a pretty poor state. Most people do not get the privilege of attending private schools and have to attend Louisiana’s deficient public school system — 44 percent of schools received a failing grade in performance scores, Channel 9 reported.
And what happens when people aren’t educated? Quite often they turn to crime.
While all of these solutions could do a world of good for violent crime in the state, they will certainly take time and money.
I can’t speed up time, but as far as money goes, there are a few things the government can do.
Stop locking up potheads — it’s not cheap.
Don’t offer tax-free weekends on guns and expensive outdoor equipment. Louisiana’s the Sportsman’s Paradise — we’ll buy that stuff anyway.
Add some tax to cigarettes and alcohol — we’ll keep buying those goods, too.
We live in a great state, but the rate of violence occurring is unacceptable by any means. There are ways to fix it. We just need to seek them out.
Chris Grillot is a 20-year-old English and mass communication senior from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter @TDRcgrillot.
 
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Contact Chris Grillot at [email protected]