Be SMART Week 2026 l Panel Discussion

I would love to introduce the lovely Emmy-winning journalist and community community activist uh WIS co-anchor Judy Gatson. She will be our moderator. >> Good morning everyone. >> Morning. >> Per usual, the podium is taller than I am, but that's okay. Um listen, I want to thank all of you for being here today. This is so incredibly important and this is an issue that as you hear the stories you realize the impact on our community. Um it's a conversation that as some of our speakers have already said that we need to normalize in our community. And that's a part of what you are here to do today. We are here today all of us because keeping our communities safe is not someone else's responsibility. It's a responsibility that belongs to each and every one of us. And so for us here at WIS, Lena Allen is here to cover it. I see some of our other media friends are here as well. It is not our goal to just report on tragedies after they happen. We are here. We are live streaming right now. We are covering and amplifying this issue because we want to all be a part of the solution. And so we thank our panelists for being here today, for sharing your life experiences, to share your stories, to be transparent in this journey. Grief is a hard thing. And for those of you who have been through this from a grief perspective, to be able to turn that around and use your story to be able to help save somebody else's life, it is powerful and it is impactful. So, we thank you for that. Uh, National Smart Week obviously reminds us that preventing gun violence is not just about what happens after tragedy strikes. Um, as Dr. Walker pointed out, Dr. Moore has always talked about it as well. You know, the metal detectors are working. That's great. Um, the kids are listening. When they see something, they're saying something. That's great. But that is not enough. We all need to be a part of the solution. And there's a lot more we can do to make sure that guns aren't being stolen out of vehicles, that guns are not ending up in the hands of our children. So, we want to work together to prevent tragedy before it happens, especially when it comes to responsible gun ownership and secure firearm storage. So, we have an extraordinary panel here today. They bring expertise. They bring experience and in some cases deeply personal perspectives to really ignite this conversation and spread it beyond the Busby Community Center. We want to thank the city of Colombia for hosting this conversation. But we want to spread it throughout the state of South Carolina to make sure that our community is a safer place for our children where they can live, they can play, they can learn, and they can do it while having the safety and security um of their community. Just a very simple question because I think this issue has been unnecessarily politicized in a lot of forums. This is not about politics at all. This is really about keeping our children safe. So, how can we make secure gun storage common practice, expected practice, standard protocol among gun owners? >> Well, I I think we have to do what we're doing today. Um and each person can magnify that that message. Um Judy, you you always are leading the charge. Um you bring, you know, attention to so many critical issues, but we've had many conversations about um the challenges we have with gun violence and um irresponsible gun possession or gun ownership. Um the sheriff often talks about um your car is not a holster. Um and we still see farms stolen from cars um just you know on a daily basis and those guns end up in the hands of um of people that have um make bad decisions and have um you know poor intentions. Um one of the things that I think is important that um that that we really have to understand is um our children um in our young adults are still children. They make so many impulsive um emotional decisions, split-second decisions that have life-changing consequences. And um I think any opportunity we have to to message and stress the importance of of responsible gun ownership and proper storage. Um we we just we can't do it enough. I I know we talk it all the time. We also try to walk it. Um we uh every community meeting we go to and it's literally hundreds. We have over a hundred community organizations or community neighborhood organizations and in Colombia and um you know gunlocks uh along with a lot of other things go with our officers to these communities and um I think it has to be a consistent cadence of messaging um to keep attention to this and to exploit resources like this. I mean, it's it's that um just envelope, give out these gun locks um will save a life. There's no question about it. It will absolutely save a life and we've got to do continue to do our part to bring attention to this. >> Thank you very much. Would you pass the microphone to Torian because I want you to pick up on something that Chief just talked about the impulse of our children. And I've heard Sherblot talk about this before that back in the day if the kids got upset with each other, they just fight and duke it out. Now the first resort in some instances is a gun. What do you think we can do to communicate to our children? I guess about you know Dr. Walker talked about it emotional intelligence. I mean regulating those emotions and just not having that be the first response or really any response. >> I mean uh I look at you know just coming from a a troubled child. Like you said when we was coming up it was more so fight. Okay, we might lose today, come back tomorrow and do it again. You know, try lose again. You know, you just can't be let it go. Um I think with the gun lock more so u it it might just might might need to be a class for the youth. I mean, I feel as as though when it come to adults, we kind of know better, but you got this f this trend going on with the kids. And one of the things is social media helping them, >> you know, social media helping them, you know, see rappers talk about guns and stuff, not realizing that rappers talk about this gun entertainment, but they go back home to their state. I feel as though, you know, somebody need to sit down with the kids and let them know, you know, that's that's not reality of things. You know, you talking about guns, this that underage, you going to jail. Basically, like I said, I I sit down and I think about it all the time and I just say, you know, we just need to be put in a lot more effort to these youth, actually snatching them up and sitting them down and, you know, explaining to them, you know, to say guns and, you know, locking guns and whatnot. But one thing I had to realize when I was growing up, I did like guns, but I never really had nobody in my face telling me, "Okay, well, you stay out of trouble." Okay, you like guns. When you get a certain age, you can actually go get a rescue gun, you know, protect yourself. And I feel it's as though if a lot of these kids really knew that, it'll get him something for look to it instead of just saying, "Okay, let me go break this car and get a gun, you know, and have it." A lot of them just don't even understand that you can actually have it and do the right things with it because they really tell them. So, I think, you know, we just need to get more active with the youth as far as, you know, >> that's great insight. Would you pass the microphone down this way to Cassie to your right? And you you make such great points because honestly it comes back to everything, right? We need to model responsible behavior for our children. You know, if they're trying to model what they see on social media and rappers and all of that and they're putting that on their social media page, people are going to make all sorts of judgments and stereotypes about them when they're just trying to be cool, you know, and relate to what they see on social media. Cassie, from a parent perspective, I mean, you've also dealing with this as a grieving spouse and so many perspectives that you bring to the table. How do we normalize these conversations among parents? Because part of the BS smart philosophy is, you know what, before you send your kid over to somebody's house for a sleepover, you need to have this conversation with the parents, not just about nut allergies, but you know, our guns safely secured. >> Absolutely. Well, good morning everyone and Judy. Thank you so much for being such a bright light and advocate always in this space. I want to start by first acknowledging the BS smart volunteers. Can we do a round of applause for each and every one of you? Many of whom have lived experiences really. Gun violence is something that touches it all. And you all are truly heroes in your dedication, your commitment to spreading the word, raising awareness. For many of the volunteers, Judy, when I got to meet them, I thought this was a full-time job because they're doing it. I learned that that is not the case. >> And I think it's so important that we highlight our BS smart volunteers and everyone who is here and dedicating their time and so much of their lives to this cause because I think what it highlights is that this is a responsibility that we all have. And gun safety, gun violence is something that touches each and every one of us. It is not something as we shared that is restricted to one community, one person, one neighborhood. But it is something that truly touches all us all and I'm an example of that. I think we may not consider often the diversity of gun violence victims and gun violence survivors u but for those of you who may not know my first husband Greg was a police officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty. Next month will be 11 years. And something I have shared since his death was what if we could have found the person who killed him before that day? Would we have found someone in need? And what if we could have helped him? And I think that highlights how it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to pay attention to everyone in our community to look for those who are hurting to have connections and relationships so if we find someone who's in pain that we know how to get them connected to help. And then very importantly as a mom now. So I have two little boys. Uh my son S just started sixth grade. He is so big. He's learning Latin and bass and it is so fun. And my wild little 5-year-old Silus. And I have to give extreme kudos to Be Smart because of your education. I know what to look out for, how to educate and ask when my kids go over to other homes. Are there secured weapons? To think about our own space. I think often we think about that won't be me. like I am a responsible person and I will tell y'all just a few months after Greg was killed trying to put my life back together, get my feet on the ground, I consider myself a pretty responsible, caring individual. I love my son so so so much. Would never want to put him in harm's way. But I was trying to put pieces of my life together and I relied a lot on child care. And so one time there was a day I had a babysitter over and I learned after the fact that she invited other people over to the house. And now remember Greg was a cop so we had weapons in our house and that's something I felt safe with. And S was only a baby. He couldn't touch them. But that highlighted to me how quickly things can change in an instant. And so for everyone who's watching at home how important it is that we see that this is something that truly impacts it all. that we are all so interconnected and that each and every one of us need to care and take a responsibility whether it's just as a parent, a concerned community member, someone looking out or if you take the cause on and become one of these incredible be smart volunteers who are making a tremendous difference. Thank you. Thank you so much. We can pass it down to Hayward. And this is the thing too, Hayward. You know, you're around kids all the time, right? What think 12,000 kids, you know, as your district in Orangeburg. I, you know, we look at the BS smart strategy. It makes perfect sense to me as a mom, right? These the statistics prove, you know, that we can make a difference, but we can still have a disconnect in relating to our kids, in connecting to our kids. What are we missing that we still need to do to connect and make this message resonate with them? >> Wow. Well, our our children, great question. Um, our children can stop uh fakes from a long hallway. >> Yeah. >> Like we can't be smart doing be smart week and then be dumb every other week. >> Like I said it because >> let's make that the sub motto. >> You know, I say it because like one of my friend Johnson says this all the time. He says commitment is staying true to what you said you would do long after the mood in which you said it in is left. Uh meaning it can't just be a feeling or an event. uh because what's glorified so much and to hood on the nail um guns are glorified so much that our kids think they're our toys. >> You know, I there was a time where I went to more kids funerals than I went to their high school graduations. >> And that's not that's not supposed to be the norm. And so I think we have to be more intentional about making this relevant to them. Um speaking with them on a regular uh going to where they are like it can't just be relevant when a child dies. Like it should be if we said we lost about 40 37 kids died. I'm sitting next to my sister Courtney. I sat in that classroom. Winston Hunter was the best child I never got a chance to meet. >> I'm talking about this young man. She'll tell she'll tell it way better than me. But I sat in that classroom because we had to provide counseling for those students. And to see that empty desk on a regular basis and those children asking why my classmate six-year-old is not here. And his last assignment, his dream was that the world would be a better place. >> Like like we have to be it has to be a movement every single day until we lose nobody. Like it should be a mindset of no child's going to be left on dying on our watch, right? But again the we we are kind in a sense hypocrites sometimes as communities because in one breath we'll say this is wrong. This is wrong. But then at some of our sporting events, we'll play the same music that our children go to jail for, get arrested for, or get suspended for. And so there's a cognitive dissonance in our community that we have to look in the mirror and say, are we truly because our children model what they see in us? Like if they they would literally do better if we just told them, hey, this is there's a better way. As Torah was saying, they they would do better. Like we're not giving them enough credit. I don't think our expectations are high enough for our kids. >> I don't I don't think we really expect any more from them. I think we think because they cry because we told them we told them no, then we better let him play this this dumb music. Let him let him uh do a tick tock dance to murder songs because we like the beat so much. And so we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, "Do we really want them to live? Cuz if so, we would be more intentional about sharing, speaking life to them on a regular basis, telling them what their future is." And so I said, and I end my point by saying, I said it's a mindset thing. You can change the behavior all day long, but if the mindset doesn't change, the behavior won't change. And so, we got to get to their mind. And so, that means going to basketball games, doing tables, having tables, making announcements, like making it sound so relevant to the kids like, dang, they really serious about me living. They really want me to live a long life. But I ask our question for adults. How are we advertising adulthood? >> How are we advertising? Do our children look at us and say, "Man, I can't wait to grow up." or they look at our lives and say, "Man, I don't want to be them." They like they hate adulthood. And so, again, I would say we got to be intentional. Make it relevant in every school, every classroom, every sporting event. Um, and again, just be serious about how how big we really want to be. What vision do we have for our children? >> I love that. Courtney, we want to come to you because, um, as Hayward mentioned, Winston, I remember covering that story on WIS and what a beautiful, beautiful child in spirit. So for you to be in this space of advocacy now, you know, and as I listen to Hayward talk, I just think about the truth that our children are looking for boundaries, right? Sometimes as parents, it's hard to enforce those boundaries. But when you just let them run wild, the message you're sending is I don't care. You know, at least when you put boundaries in place and you are consistently enforcing them, the message is I care about you. As he said, I want you to live. When you think about Winston and just the work that you are able to do now to resonate with these children, what is I guess your challenge to the community so that his loss is not in vain? So that we learn something from his loss to help save another child? >> I think, excuse me, I think the biggest challenge that I'm facing is I'm talking to the people that's doing the work. I'm not talking to the ones that needs to hear it. >> The ones that need to show up is not coming out. So, what do we need to do to get the ones that need to hear what we're doing, the ones that need to change, the ones that who needs to secure the guns, the ones that need to put the guns down, how can we get them out? And um just to piggy back off um the normalizing, we normalizing seat belt laws and we normalize cell phone safety. We normalize, you know, we teach our kids at a young age, don't touch that stove cuz it's hot. So let's start talking about gun safety as well. So I think it need to start when they're young because as they grow up and they're going to hear it, they're going to be reminded of that because I know now at the age of two, he can understand that that stove is hot. So why not at the age of two this gun is not you don't need to be touching it or you and then also um a challenge is getting the parents involved as well. >> Yes, we can talk to the kids but if those kids can't come out because when they can't drive then we need to get the parents involved as well. That is the toughest challenge. But no matter how tough the challenge is, I'm gonna continue to fight for my son because my son was where he needed to be that night. But because of actions of someone else that wasn't taught when they was at a young age, I'm going to continue to fight. They took my son's voice, but they didn't take his mama's voice >> and I'm going to be Winston's voice. So, I'm going to continue to fight. And it seemed like every day it's more and more gun violence. So, you know what that means? I'm just going to fight just that hard. >> I'm not going to stop. Yes, it gets discouraging sometimes, but that just put more fire in me. And I just because with my anger that I have, yes, it's hard some days. It is. But I'm just going to channel the channel that energy, channel that anger, channel that hurt to just make so I can make sure another mom do not have to deal with the pain that I am dealing with. Not that another child cannot grow up to be all that they can be. So be smart. I thank you. partnering with y'all is amazing. But even when I see them just out in the street cuz I think I seen you a couple of months ago with my boys with the boys. It just light up my world. I'm like, "Hey, how are you?" You know, we just hug. But like it's that connection we have, the partnership that we have. We're going to continue to fight. Yes. Those days going to get hard. >> Yeah. >> But we're just going to continue to fight even harder. >> Well, thank you for your passion and your voice. Kelsey, I'm going to come to you next. I'm going to pass Kelsey next. Um, and and we thank you for being so willing to be an advocate because, you know, I know sometimes it feels like you just need time to grieve, you know, and there's no timetable. You never get over that. You get better, I think, at dealing with it. But what we learn in the dark, we share in the light to help others. And I think part of your point, which we'll come back to Cassie in just a little bit, taking resources to the community, that's what serve and connect does so well, to go meet the community where they are. And I have a question. I want to come back to Torian a little bit about that, too. But Kelsey, from what you do on a day-to-day basis, what what have you seen that you think can that you believe can help this message break through and resonate so that everybody cares about this whether they've been touched by gun violence or not? So I think as going out being a BS smart volunteer and talking to people in the community, one of the things that parents don't really understand, excuse me, one of the things they don't understand is the ask portion of BSmart. So they don't, you know, it's like a light bulb goes off when you talk to them and say, "Hey, if you're, you know, even if you don't have a gun in your home whenever your kids are going to family members' houses or if they're going to a friend's house, it's okay to ask those questions. Hey, do you have a gun in your home and are you keeping it locked up?" Um, I think that's one of the biggest things like even if you're not a gun gun owner, like you can help get this message out. You can help spread the message about being smart. Absolutely. Matt, let's come down to you. What perspective can you add to this in terms of implementing these principles, normalizing it? I mean, it's so great. I think that the school districts were some of the very first partners with Be Smart. I mean, and that's meeting our children where they are, but I think part of what we've heard from our panel is that we need to be connecting with the parents because we already asked our teachers to do so much. Toriian was talking about, you know, a class and somebody to sit down. That's parents who need to be sitting down talking to their children. That's parents who need to have their children involved in community events and Columbia Parks and Recreation. That's parents who need to help find those role models and mentors for their children in the community. What would you add? >> There's so much important work going on in schools every day. We're blessed to have eight plus hours of exposure to students. We recognize that we need to be more informed. You know, adverse childhood experiences, we're trauma informed. So, we can see when students might turn to violence, might turn to a gun. Where can you step in? you said that early. If we got to that kiddo earlier, could we have stopped something? So, it's very valuable work that aligns with this. It's not only um educating adults, you know, as you exercise your right, you do take responsibility for that right, but also recognizing kids are distressed. So, that's very valuable work that we're investing in as educators. >> Toriian, I want to come back down to you, go past the microphone down. I I can't remember if I met you then, but there was a meeting. Chief, I think you were there. I think Sheriff Lot was there. Um, it was over at the church over by Columbia Place Mall. Do you remember what I'm talking about? >> Yes. And talking about trying to fund and and get recreation equipment and things like that to the community. I mean, all of that stuff is a process, right? We got to work through the process to be able to get resources to the kids. You know, not every child has opportunity to go to summer camp at Adventure. You know, not every child has the opportunity to go to summer camps at the zoo. But what do you think we can do as a community to make recreation more available? I saw something recent about Columbia Parks Recreation doing like Friday night hoops, you know, and things like that, but we got to get the kids there. So, what other ideas do you think we need to be putting into action and mobilizing? Um, like you said with the midnight hoop thing, I did uh midnight hoop also from hours of 9:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. just to kind of keep the kids off the streets, give them something safe to do. Um, the funding, that's another part when it come to the kids. Like she was saying earlier, something like saying out here earlier, a lot of time these kids want to be involved and part of something, but with no transportation or either, you know, I had as a kid that me and that hoop one night I said, "Well, a lot of y'all play basketball real good. Why don't y'all play for the school?" You know, basically just encouraging them that it is something out there for for y'all to do. And I'm watching y'all do it good. And the kid response was, "Man, we ain't got money for a fist." And that was like one of the saddest things to hear going at a f, you know, about 10 $15. So it's like more so you got to you got to kind of be able to get the kids involved, but find out whether or not they can pay for it because sometimes pride stop you from letting a person know like, hey, listen, my family don't have $10 for me to be a part of this, you know? So, I just say, you know, just sit down and um give him something to do. I went to watch the movie Tory Story. I think that's one of the things that everybody should watch because it it basically just showed, you know, now with the new technology going on, kids don't even want to come outside and play now. They want to sit in front of the TV and, you know, imitate everything that that they seeing opposed to just coming outside and being normal kids, you know. So it's just more so I say just spending time with the kids let them know that somebody do care for you somebody do love you know so that's that's one of the things I think you know a lot of people look at it like that's what it's all about money but these kids right now you can tell these kids come on let's go outside let's go run the neighborhood just to be a part of something they going they going to really be with it it's just the effort that you got to put into it. Yeah, I think that's a great point. We can pass the microphone down to Cassie because ultimately when you talk about what we know as traditional gangs versus your organization, they're looking to belong. They're looking to belong to some kind of family. You're going to decide which family they belong to. And Cassie, we were talking about taking the resources and that's such a great point, too, about removing the obstacles. I think people take for granted, you know, that every kid can afford a physical or every kid has a pediatrician. I remember back during co my boys were on the computer and their PE teacher told them to go outside and run around the house three times. I was like, "Where are you going?" He said, "He told me to go outside." I said, "Oh, no, no, no." And I called the principal cuz I'm like, "Wait a minute. Not every child is at a house, number one. Not every child has a yard, number two." And they didn't mean any harm. It's just a perspective that you bring and you don't have that world view if that's not your experience. So in terms of serve and connect, your commitment really is what I admire so much about going to meet people in the community. They don't have to go find servant connect services. You take it to the community. Why has that model worked so well and how can we expand it? Um it's all about partnerships and collaboration and the collaboration and partnerships with BS smart has been second to none. And what I would encourage is for anyone who is listening, if you are someone who hosts events or as a community leader, community organization, reach out to Be Smart. They have done a phenomenal job of making it so easy to access this information. And that's where we're able to work together. So whether it be at our community events or we also created flyers in partnership with the Richland County Sheriff's Department and had volunteers going out into the neighborhood to deliver them home to home to make sure that people have access to this information. Social media campaigns, those are a few of the examples and it's all of us working together. And I think I'll I'll come back again to the point I brought up earlier is that gun violence is something and gun safety that touches each and every one of us. So my challenge to anyone listening at home, identify one action step that you're going to take walking away from listening to this news story, observing this panel. What can you do? It may be as simple as go onto the website and learn what BSmart has to share. There are such simple actionable tools that we can each take to keep people safe. I will tell you something that I'm going to walk away with is we have one of our programs, Grapes Groceries. It's our uh program. We have boxes of non-p perishable food. started in partnership with the Columbia Police Department. And I'm like, my goodness, for all of our partnerships, how come there is not BS smart material in every single box? It is so easy. So, that's something I'm going to take away and look into. And all of us have the responsibility and the opportunity to do something. Something may also look like caring for others, not living inside of our bubble. We all touch people every day, but we are all so so busy. It's easy to get into. I wake up, I feed my kids, I go to work, I come home, I make dinner. Take a moment, check on the people that you care about. Check on your neighbors. Everyone may be hurting, may need a little extra help. Or you may have the single mom who is being pulled in so many directions, just like that story I shared about myself where I was relying on other support and they may need that little extra help. And I think we can all take that accountability. But definitely, what is the one action step that you're going to take walking away from today? And how can we access those resources? >> That is fantastic. And at the end, we will have all of our panelists give a charge to our community and everybody watching online. And in fact, if you all have any questions, we want to make sure that we answer your questions as well. So, if you raise your hand, I'll come to you in the audience. But Chief, I want you to touch on it. We definitely are going to talk more about giving away the free gun lots. I know Richland County is doing it today and then I think on Thursday, we have the information posted on wisdv.com and I think on the sheriff's department website, too. So, we'll make sure we share the announcement you made today. But one of the things that we have talked about that I know has frustrated you to no end is unlocked cars. And my husband actually did a dissertation talking to young men about, you know, how they end up kind of off the track and, you know, trying to, you know, end up in alternative school. And number one, they said nobody cared. Number two, they said we don't have, they don't even view it as really stealing cuz they told them, "Well, the car is unlocked." They're like, "We didn't break into the car." I mean, perspective is everything, right? But the I mean you've told me and correct me if I'm wrong, but what I remember you telling me before is that the crime rate in our city in our region would drop overnight if people would just lock their cars at night. >> I I have Judy and u that's where it comes back to this being a shared responsibility and and I when we're in neighborhood and community meetings, you know, I I'll say if if you just will lock your car, property crime rates are are going to plummet. um illegal firearms that are falling in the hands of um you know of young adults and sometimes children um you know that would be cut in in a third and it's just simply locking locking your car. It's um it's very easy to do and to me it's a it's your responsibility of being a a citizen a member of our community and um but but it is a absolute shared responsibility and it it's uncanny um we can talk about it every single week and we do and and the next day we'll have reports of car breakins or letins is what we call them because they're unlocked and a and a firearm being stolen. And I have to, you know, acknowledge our our city council, our mayor and council, you know, they they took a very courageous step a couple years ago enacting an ordinance requiring the reporting of a firearm installed. You know, a lot of times we will recover a firearm off of somebody um and there's no report of it, you know, being missing or stolen. A lot of a lot of times people are scared to report that a gun's been stolen. They think they may get in trouble. They have incomplete information. So, they're reluctant not to um not to report it, but um it is very important that we know when a gun is stolen, what kind of gun it is, so we can enter it into some tracking systems that we have at our disposal, but also so we can identify patterns that might be occurring in our community. >> Wonderful, Chief. We'll pass the microphone down to Kelsey and I do have the information. The locks will be available today from 5 until 7:00 p.m. at 2500 Decor Boulevard in Columbia, not too far from the Serb Connect offices. Um, and then again on Thursday from 5 until 7 at the Richland County Sheriff's Department Region One substation on Lower Richland Boulevard. Um, Kelsey, as you think about this, I want to follow up on something that Cassie said earlier, like the BS smart volunteers. You would think this is a full-time job because you guys are doing the work in the community. Can you talk a little bit with the folks here in the room and the folks who are watching on the live stream about what the why is for you? I think part of this is connecting to people so that they understand why caring about this, why implementing the smart strategy, it protects the whole community, not just their family or their child. >> Yeah. So, it's important to me because I do have a daughter that goes to Arford County School District. So, um we've had a couple instances where, you know, things have just been said within the school and I'm like, "Oh, did you tell your teacher?" You know, of course you teach your kids all the time. Like, if you see something, say Um, so I think that's very important, but I don't ever want to, you know, send my daughter to school and be scared of what might happen while she's there just because, you know, another child thinks that, oh, this is just a toy. You know, let me take it to school and show it off to my friends and it not be a toy. So, again, just making sure that parents understand like, hey, making sure that you're locking up your firearms because you never know what a kid might do. You don't know. Um, you know, you can teach them all day, but if they have friends over, things like that, just making sure that they understand like, hey, you can't mess with this. I'm going to lock it away so you can't get to it. But again, just I don't want to send my daughter to school and be afraid of what might happen because, you know, someone else, you know, didn't secure securely store their firearm. >> Yeah, we all have a responsibility to be involved. Herwood, I want to put a charge on you to speak to our parents. You know, I think about this um from the perspective of, you know, like if you hear a certain scripture, right? You might hear it in your church all the time, but you go to another church and the pastor said it's like, "Oh my god, it was life-changing." Right? Sometimes dealing with my boys, I can say something to them that might resonate. Dwayne's like, "I asked them that. They didn't tell me that. I'm like, "You didn't ask it the right way." You know, but what is it? I want you to talk to parents because I think number one, sometimes parents are so young. It's a different life experience. Number two, you know, I'm just keeping it real, like don't tell me how to talk to my kid, but what do we need parents to understand in order to help everybody be smart? >> Thanks so much. Uh, yesterday, I'm a pastor as well, and yesterday I preached a message um to our youth. >> Feel free to preach here. Go ahead. >> Amen. Um but I did and um in in preaching the message to our youth, I spoke to them about again about their mindset and about being content and not not comparing your self to others and parents not having the pressure to try to help your kids compete with the person next to you. Um you don't know what those parents did. You don't know what those families had to go through to get those $200 pair of shoes on their feet. My mother raised me as a single parent mom. Um and phenomenal mom. I don't she's not labeled as a single parent mom, but what she did for my twin brother and me was extraordinary. One of the things she did the most when was she impacted my mind. She said, "I care more about what goes in your head than what what goes on your feet." And she was committed to that. But one of the things she also did was very powerful is she also put me in the pathway because we didn't have a father figure in our life. She put me in a pathway of those who could do for me what she couldn't do for us. And so I would encourage parents and and tell you one that your children are not accidents. Your children have purpose. They have destiny and there's grace on the inside of them. And you may not have all of the the knowhow or the articulation or the degree or whatever or or even know what what but you do know that they were created for something special that they have purpose. And I say that because in also doing that we also have to be make sure that we are not compromising that by allowing our children to be impacted by information that is destroying them. Like I would encourage you do not allow it. I know it's difficult with them because you don't want to say no to them. You don't like those puppy dog eyes that they give you when you tell them no, but you cannot allow them to celebrate and glorify things that are meant to destroy them. It bothers me so much that uh we celebrate these local rappers maybe that make it out the hood and now they're giving away toys and turkeys um and everything, but at the end of the day, sometimes they're giving toys to kids whose father they took out from her because of her. And so we got to be careful about how we allow ourselves to celebrate things that are destroying us as a community. I rather put flowers on my tie than on their caskets. And so as parents, again, I encourage you, your children have life. They have destiny on the inside of them. And if you don't know how to get them towards that goal for their lives, there are people that are in their pathway, churches, schools, communities that can help you do what you can't do for for them as well. >> Let the church say amen. Amen. Let's pass Michael down to Matt. Matt, we have about 10 minutes left. I want to talk a little bit about this other aspect that's can be difficult to deal with sometimes in your capacity. You deal with discipline and intervention services. Um, you know, that has changed a lot in the school environment over the years. What would you share with parents in terms of, you know, we our children need to understand what consequences are, right? If you as a parent allow your child to live life without consequences, then when they get in the quote unquote real real world to end up at school or on a job and somebody else says consequences are unnegotiable, they don't know how to cope. So what guidance would you offer to parents in terms of discipline, in terms of intervention, in terms of what that looks like to help children and parents make better decisions. >> It's already been said well here today, but don't be naive to think it could happen to me. not my community, not my school, not my house. That's when we fail as adults. Um, it can easily happen. I have not experienced loss that we've heard today, but I couldn't fathom that as a parent. I cannot tell parents how to raise their own children. I can tell you in my house, I was a nosy parent. You're in my house driving my car. I want to make sure we're doing the right thing. So, having tough conversations, recognizing that yes, your life is looks very different than the neighbors, but we're all in this together. I think that real conversation not only as educators, as parents, as adults, but as a community. Um, you're right. Um, a lot of times when kids make poor choices that end up in my realm of decision- making, um, it's been a tough day, but then I have to reflect on what can we have recognized earlier. What steps can we have taken? And that's when the work starts for me as a parent. That's when I start seeing, okay, where are we not only in our household, in our school system, our community, but what am I doing about that? I think you said earlier, we all take that active role and recognize it could be me next. It could be my household. It could be my school. That's devastating to look back and say, "Why didn't I do more when I had a chance?" >> Courtney, I want to come to you because you talked earlier about a point that I think is so important in really addressing this in an effective way. Just like today, so many people in the room are doing the work. Um, so we need to reach those people who don't maybe understand what BSmart is, who, you know, haven't normalized these conversations yet. What ideas? And you know, you have a great relationship with Sheriff Ravenell, you know, uncle sheriff as you like to call him, which is which has been great, but even that relationship and servant connects has been instrumental in this too. Breaking down the barriers between law enforcement and the communities they serve so that children are more comfortable saying something when they see something to break through this snitch mentality. I mean, I've talked with local law enforcement for years about different crimes that are still unsolved. They know for a fact people in this community know what happened and who was responsible, but they won't say a word. What can we do to help break down those barriers because all of that helps make our community safer as well. >> Um, again, I just think we need to meet them where they are. Children are so different nowadays. Um they're being raised pretty much by children. They having kids at a young age. So we need to meet them where they at. Um we need to continue with the education. I think we need to continue to talk to them. Yes, they may not want to hear. Yes, they may get aggravated hearing. But make it repetitive. We make laws and unspoken rules repetitive. Why not continue to make gun laws repetitive? Um why not continue to educate them about the safety? Continue to educate them about putting them down. Um and connect them with law enforcement because a lot of people not you're not going to want to speak to law enforcement. So that's where the advocates and the community leaders get out, make them comfortable. Um not necessarily be friends with them, but definitely make your face known, make your face familiar. be approachable. There's a lot of people they're not approachable. Go out there and talk, teach. Um I'm very faith based. I I stay prayed up because on prayer is so powerful and that's the only thing can change things. >> So yes, we may not get to them today, tomorrow, or next week, but if we continue to stay prayed up, pray for them. Let them know that yes, you may not want to hear us, but you're still going to hear. You're still going to see my face. Um, you're still going to hear my voice. You're still going to hear these rules. You just, it does not have to be a repetitive thing. It's a non-stop thing. >> Outstanding. Um, Kelsey, I'm going to come to you in just a moment to ask since you're our BS smart representative on the panel, how we can better spread the BS smart message. I mean, we want to take everything, all the knowledge that we have in this room and spread it out across our community. And then panel, I'll ask each of you to give our audience a charge. One action step. And Cassie, you can follow up because you gave us a great one earlier, but one action step that we can consider to take all the information we have here to do something because I think it goes back to even as parents, less talking and more doing. I can talk to my boys until they're blue in the face. We read the book, The Anxious Generation, and all this stuff about what it does to be on your phone before bedtime and deep sleep. The one thing that makes them put their phone down is when I put mine down. It is really that simple to model the behavior that we want to see in our children. So Kelsey, talk to us about what you think we can do in the media, in our schools, in our communities to better spread this message about be smart. >> So Hayward touched on it earlier, but you know, this week is be smart week. Um so you know, don't say this week or today, um this is a great campaign. I want to do something and then two weeks from now, forget about it. you know, make it a mission to get out there, look at the website, figure out how you can um volunteer in your areas. We talk all the time about how there's so many opportunities in Orangeburg. And while we do have, you know, several great volunteers in Orangeburg um and surrounding areas, there are sometimes where there are events out there that are partners up in, you know, Columbia, Richland, um Lex areas can't get down here. So, um, if you're in the Armsburg area, definitely, you know, check it out and, you know, see how you can become a volunteer. Um, but also, you know, whenever you see us out, I think one of the biggest thing is, you know, okay, you know, I don't have a gun. I don't need to hear about this. You know, no, stop and listen, you know, listen to what we have to say and then you can take that information and spread it around to those who may have those firearms. >> Fantastic. if you will pass your mic to Matt. But Chief, I'm going to hand my mic to you to give the information about your gun lock giveaway coming up this week. >> Okay. Again, thank you to Be Smart for partnering with us on Wednesday right out here in front of our Busby Street Community Center from 5 to 7. We're going to be working with Be Smart to get these uh gun locks and gun storage kits out. And let me ask you to I want to I want to ask Chief to address one more issue because this is the other thing that I hear when we talk about the free gun locks and secure storage. There's the idea out there among some that if they use these responsibly, they won't be able to access their gun in time in a situation where they may need it. How do you address those concerns? Well, you got to um understand how to work them obviously and some of them are a little more restrictive than than others. Um and I think it's just knowing what piece of equipment you have with with your gun. Um and you know how you intend to use the firearm, too. Um but it's it's not made for, you know, some are made for immediate access and some aren't. And that's intentional. So, it really needs to be the type of uh gun safety device that works best for you. >> Sounds good. That sounds great, Chief. It goes back to training, right? And it depends, as she said, what you want to use it for. It might also depend on the age of the children in your home, you know? I mean, when we had the story that Dr. Walker mentioned earlier about the six-year-old, when I first saw the picture, I was like, "Oh, that looks like a toy." Sher Bl's like, "If you pick it up, you'll know it's not a toy." And so, you know, if you have young children, especially, you know, those little ones, you don't know what they can do until they do it, you know, and they pick up things and they're so curious and it really was a miracle that that child didn't figure out how to pull that trigger. But we want everybody to be safe. You can't say the resource is not available. You can't say I can't afford a gun lock or gun safe. We have so many resources in our available in in our community. So, we want to make sure that we're connecting our community with those resources. So, Matt, we'll start with you. your charge to our community to take away an action step from this forum today. >> What have I done today to take responsibility? Um, it's been said earlier, I put on my seat belt and make sure my kids are in their driver's seat. I check the smoke alarms. I do all things on a normal basis. Why is this not normalized? So, I'm going to step away from this and remind myself every day, what have I done to help impact this movement? >> Fantastic. Courtney, your charge for our audience today? Um my charge for the audience today is to those parents that's not getting their kids out. Um encourage them to get them out. Encourage them to be involved. Even though you may think your child is not um doing something, still get involved because maybe that child can be a ripple effect and and tell another child and then that child can tell another child. Just get the information out. Like um um like she said, there's a lot of information out there. the resources are out there. We just to make sure we need to get it into the hands of everyone, not certain people, everyone. >> Thank you very much, Courtney. I appreciate it. Kelsey, your charge, one action step you would encourage everyone to consider. >> Um, if you have a unsecured um gun at home, go get you some secure storage for it. Whether that be you going and purchasing something or going out to one of the community events that is going on this week and getting a free gun lock, but secure the firearm. Thank you very much, pastor. A word. >> All right. Well, you said it. Train up a child in the way they should go. So when they grow older, they will not depart from the way. We're not raising our children to be children. We're raising to be responsible adults. And so when you speak to them, you're not seeing them. And I I have a baby girl and I love my daughter. Sometimes it's difficult to watch her grow grow. But I realized when she was born that I'm training her to be a responsible young lady. I'm training my boys to be responsible men. I say that because our children want to live. I every funeral I've attended of a young child, I've never seen kids that who were their friends laughing at the casket. They were crying. They were balling their eyes out. There was a preacher up there preaching over them. Don't go to God when they die. Go to God so they can live. Like go to God so they can live. They want to live. And what I did say and I finished this point is after my sermon, a kid, a 18-year-old texted me and I went screaming through the house. My wife will tell you. And They text me this long um message saying, "Pastor, I'm listening. >> I'm listening." They said, "What you were sharing about how can we promote this and do this?" And I didn't know that, but I'm glad you said that. I'm listening. Our kids are listening. Give them something good to listen to. They want to live. >> Everybody going to your church on Sunday. Okay. Torian, I want your charge to be to our kids because I think your testimony is the truth that it's never too late to be who God made us to be, and that none of us have to be defined by our mistakes, right? We're all a work in progress. So, what would your charge be to our children about the decisions they're making, the friends that they're hanging out with, and how they're spending their time. >> Um, one of the things I like to tell them is, you know, you came in this world by yourself. So remember when you get in those lonely places, nine times out of 10 you going to be in it by yourself. So I like to um pretty much say, you know, when it come to the kids, like I said, u it's not how you start, it's more so how you finish. A lot of kids, they want to do different things in life, but sometimes it's it's the company that you keep. you know, you you want to go to school, um, get a good education, but the friends that you be around daily, you know, they telling you, "Okay, well, let's cut school, do this." A lot of time it it's going to play effect on you. So, you want to be mindful of the people that you hang around. I ask the kids a lot of time about gangs. Um, I joined when I was 13, so I like to, you know, reach back in and ask them, what is the reason that you want to be a part of a gang? And the number one answer is brotherhood. So I have to sit down and break down to them, you know, football, basketball, all that. That's a brotherhood. I mean, it ain't no different. So I just like to, you know, pretty much tell the kids to be mindful who you around. You know, whatever you want in life, you hang around those same people, you know, kid, I had to learn myself as I had that whole different people that you hang around that those are the same results that you going to, you know, pretty much get. So I had to change up myself for myself to make sure my kids, you know, in a better space because I had to realize I was the biggest road for my kids. So when I was going down that wrong path, they didn't actually make it there, but I seen it coming there. So I told myself I had to change and glad I did because my kids are in college a whole different person from what I was when I was their age and you know it working. So you know that's Awesome. Thank you for the work that you're doing because I know it hits different from you because the kids know that you're not just talking about what you think. They know you've been through it and that you know what they're dealing with and that makes a difference. Chief, from your perspective and your action step, would you also address what we can advocate for as a community that can help CPD be more effective in addressing this issue? >> Well, I want to say I had two things. Okay. actually as I was listening right one you got to talk to your kids and I think you would be shocked absolutely shocked what they've experienced if you ask them if they've seen a gun if they've touched a gun if they know somebody that has a gun it will shock you what they will tell you and the second thing is um message to our parents and guardians you got to know where the kids are you got to know where the kids are my mom and dad always said nothing happens good midnight and uh that remains true today and we just got to know where they are. Um, we got to know, um, somebody mentioned, um, you know, when they're out, they have the responsibility of having a car, you got to know who's getting in the car with you, um, and what they're bringing in the car with you. And what was what was the other thing you >> what we can advocate for as a community. I mean, you know, everybody might not be able to show up and volunteer. Everybody might not be able to donate, but there's something all of us can do. And if there's something we need to advocate in terms of support for CPD, in terms of support through city council, the state legislature, just in terms of resources that your officers need to support different events, what can we do to help be a part of the solution? >> It's to to me it's and you've heard me say this a number of times. Um, you know, we lack shock value anymore and we have normalized tragedies and I I think as a community, um, it has to matter and we we have to be outspoken about it. Um, it's, you know, we'll have a this incredibly tragic incident and um, it just it still amazes me that it just does not shock the conscience like it like it should. And it doesn't matter where it happens, it's happening and it's happening in our community and and we we've got to um we have to share in that responsibility of advocating for our children and safe gun storage. >> Thank you so much, Cassie. Final word from you. Our charge we walk out of here today, we are taking something that we learned from this room to put it into action. >> Absolutely. Well, I just want to share to my uh fellow panelists what an honor it's been to share this space with each and every one of you. Thank you for everything that you do. Thank you for your heart and soul and your commitment to this mission and to everyone here to dedicating their time and to our news uh reporters for helping us to spread the word. And so the summarize the charge one more time for every single person who is listening who is touched by the story there is something you can do. Maybe it is that you secure your weapons. Maybe you learn you're already a gun owner. Understand how to use them safely, effectively. Or if you're like, "This isn't me." Pull up the website. Look at Be smart. Understand, have a conversation with your kids. There is something that each and every single person can do in response to this. And so that's the charge. Do one thing if you're touched by the story. >> Thank you so much. Let's give a big round of applause to all of our panelists. You all have been so remarkable. We thank you for the tremendous work you're doing in our community. And I will just say from the media perspective, I was so so grateful when we got all the details last week that it was, you know, that we had not lost life, right? But every single time we get a report of it, I immediately pray, you know, just hoping that our children are safe, our students are safe, that our officers are safe, you know, because it's been a close call too many times, you know, and I'm one of those people I don't believe in speaking it. So, I don't even want to talk about it too much because I do not want this to be a reality in our community. But I think back to Chief, I can't remember how long ago it was, but there was one day when there was something that went out. Social media can be good, but it can also be a terrifying place and it can be very destructive because there was a report of an active shooter at Blackwood High School and people were immediately posting on social media. The Richland County deputies rolled up. I mean, it seemed like within seconds they were pulling out their long like it felt very real. It turned out to be a false alarm. I hope and pray that is never a real situation in our community. But you know at some point you feel like my god the odds are against us if we don't do something. So I hope that this forum today will encourage all of us to do something so that we know that we are actively being a part of the solution. And so my charge to you would be to share information on social media. Let's use social media for good. Be smart for kids is on Facebook. They're on social media platforms. They have all the graphics already for you. post one up every day this week. When they're out at tableabling events, take your kids by, talk to them about the work that they're doing. Let them talk to one of the volunteers. If your kids are old enough to volunteer, connect them with Serb and connect. Help them learn about the training through Be Smart. Have them do their senior service project on helping to spread word about this program. There are lots of things. There's something each and every one of us can do. So, find what that is for you and commit to being a part of the solution. And thank you again to our panelists and especially to all of our B Smart volunteers. Thank you for the important work you do every day. Thank you everyone. Before she step away, let's give it up for our moderator. She is so I'm so happy to ask her to moderate. I would have never done that. >> Wow. We are coming to the end, guys. This has been fantastic. Oh my goodness. So before we close up, I also want to give just really quick another for real round of applause to all of our panelists. They don't get anywhere else this Monday morning, but they couldn't wait to be here with us, right? They did. Also, I want to get all of my BMR volunteers to just stand up right here because and as they come stand up really quick, I just want you to know that these volunteers are teachers, nurses, doctors. They have careers, but this is so important to them that they have taken time out of their lives to promote this message. It is so very, very, very important. And I just wanted to give a round of applause to all of the volunteers for always being committed to the mission, to the purpose, and the B Smart meeting. Come on, let's give them a round of applause.