This has been one of the worst years for gun violence in Jamestown’ history.

Statistics indicate the city has averaged just one shooting incident a year since 2006, with 2015 topping out at three incidents. In 2016, the city has experienced nine separate shootings — five of the shootings came during an 11-day span around Thanksgiving. The majority of the city’s shootings are not random acts of violence, rather they are targeted acts carried out for a specific purpose.

One would think that knowing the shooting incidents aren’t random acts of violence would be comforting, but that isn’t the case. Sooner or later these acts of violence will have consequences for innocent people who aren’t involved in drugs or other illegal activities that are creating these violent situations. We know, for example, that one of the shooting incidents resulted in bullets striking a vehicle. One person sitting in a different seat or the car being moved ever so slightly could have resulted in injuries or death for the vehicle’s occupants. Shooting a gun from a moving vehicle or while running creates situations in which an innocent bystander walking their dog or getting their child into or out of a car is put in harm’s way.

These crimes affect all of us. These incidents paint a city struggling to rebuild itself in the worst possible light. Business owners have a harder time getting people to come to Jamestown to shop. Realtors have a harder time getting people to buy houses and begin rebuilding the city’s tax base. It will be harder to get tourists to come to Jamestown to see the National Comedy Center or the other attractions Jamestown has to offer.

Pleas for new gun control laws will do nothing to solve this problem. Cleaning up the drug problem and making Jamestown a more difficult place to make money selling drugs will help solve the problem. Cooperating with police investigations so police can take those who value their illegal business interests over the lives of the innocent would help solve the problem. Keeping those convicted of gun-related crimes and drug dealing in prison longer would help solve the problem.

The comforting thought is that our community can do all of those things with no outside help.