Anti-violence initiative in Oakland County aims to prevent gun violence
OXFORD, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - For years, the Oakland County Board of Commissioners has been working to find ways to keep the community safe.
After the tragedy that unfolded at Oxford High School in 2021, the board put in place two programs as part of an anti-violence initiative.
"We're trying to do something other than thoughts and prayers," said Marcia Gershenson, Vice-Chair of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners.
Gershenson says that during the aftermath of the Oxford High School mass shooting on November 30, 2021, commissioners met with survivors to learn how Oakland County can show its support.
"We asked them what can we do for you. And they suggested a gun buyback," Gershenson said.
Last September, the board of commissioners and seven law enforcement agencies in Oakland County collaborated to host a gun buyback.
They collected more than 350 weapons, including five assault rifles.
"It was the first one, and it was enormously successful. Gun buybacks don't often decrease crime, but they take guns off the street. And those are the guns that people inherit or are in their basement, and they don't know what to do with them, and very often there's accidental shootings that we hear of almost every single day," said Gershenson.
The gun buyback is one of two programs part of Oakland County's anti-violence initiative.
The second program is crisis intervention training.
"A program that started to train all the officers on how to handle mental health issues," Gershenson stated.
Nearly $500,000 was put towards this program. Since the start of 2023, the Oakland Community Health Network has trained 81 officers from 13 agencies.
"We need to try to find ways to lower the violence in our communities, and it's just a challenging problem, but we do feel by having some initiatives we're taking a step in the right direction. We're not just talking the talk; we're really trying to implement changes," said Gershenson.
Gershenson says it comes down to prevention.
"We're not trying to take your guns away; we're just trying to educate people about how important it is to store your guns safely so accidents don't happen," Gershenson said.
Two more crisis intervention trainings for Oakland County police officers are scheduled in September and October.
There's also talk of another gun buyback event to happen in the future.