A few dozen Natchez area residents took to the streets Sunday afternoon to raise awareness about the violence that has claimed the lives of several people in our community this year.

Marchers chanted, “Stop the violence” as they walked, and we agree. The violence must end and our community must heal.

The problem is simple.

All too often a small segment of our community’s youth decide it would be cool to carry a firearm and they do, often with deadly results.

Teenagers are still children — in the eyes of the law and of our community.

And children do not need to be in possession of firearms that are not used for hunting or shooting sports, and certainly not without parental supervision.

The solution to this problem is far more complicated.

This is in part because the problems are becoming multi-generational.

You have juveniles whose parents carried firearms when they were young. And they idolize a gangster image that is popularized in music and videos.

Layer onto that the popularity of video games that promote violence and display death in an almost matter-of-fact way and the problem gets deeper.

It’s become a cliché to say, “It takes a village to raise a child.”And the saying does have some truth in it.

But it also takes parents or guardians who work hard to ensure they insulate their children from such violent influences. Swimming against the popular stream is not easy, but it’s necessary to stop the violence, retake our youth’s future and our community.