There has been an increase in gun-related incidents in Philadelphia.

Over 300 people have been killed this year, and many more seriously injured. There’s been a tendency in the media to describe the increase of gun-related deaths as an indicator that our citizenry has become more prone to violence or to use murder as a solution to problems.

While there have been a lot of shootings, I am not sure that this is an indicator that more of our citizens are becoming more violent, so much as that their choice of weapon is having more serious consequences. In the past, conflicts and altercations left participants with black eyes, broken arms, and stab wounds—not an end to their life. The easy availability of guns, weapons that intentionally depersonalize the violence their users inflict, has obviously changed things.

It is with a lot of sadness, that we pass along the news that gun violence has struck home for the child of one of Philadelphia's truly good guys, Lance Haver. On Saturday night, his 24 year-old son Daren was getting some late night food on Cheltenham Ave, and was shot in the neck. Although he survived, he lost the ability to move, and the ability to breath on his own.