Roanoke Metropolis has skilled a major improve in murders, with 26 already reported in 2023, the best quantity because the Nineteen Seventies. Nicole Ross, a member of the outreach and assist group FEDUP and Roanoke Metropolis’s Gun Violence Prevention Fee, expressed her considerations in regards to the influence of gun violence on the neighborhood. She believes that the neighborhood is changing into desensitized to the violence and shared a private expertise of witnessing gunshots on the Melrose library. Ross highlighted elements comparable to 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 neighborhood to come back collectively and assist each other in an effort to fight the anger and damage that results in violence.