Roanoke Metropolis has skilled a major enhance in murders, with 26 already reported in 2023, the very best quantity for the reason that Nineteen Seventies. Nicole Ross, a member of the outreach and help group FEDUP and Roanoke Metropolis’s Gun Violence Prevention Fee, expressed her considerations concerning the impression of gun violence on the group. She believes that the group is turning into desensitized to the violence and shared a private expertise of witnessing gunshots on the Melrose library. Ross highlighted components resembling poverty, unemployment, and untreated psychological well being points as contributors to the violence. She emphasised the necessity for a change within the tradition and inspired the group to return collectively and help each other as a way to fight the anger and damage that results in violence.