For people who live near South Gate and Watts, experiencing gun violence remains nothing new.

Some students at Southeast Middle live with gun violence and at this point since they exist around it so much it does not affect them compared to people who have not lived near gun violence.

¨Yes, it feels like a regular neighborhood, No it does not affect me, just my mindset to be more aware,¨ eighth grader Nathan Lares said.

People who have grown up around gun violence, and issues surrounding that will become more aware of things of that nature. And also it normalizes problems and situations where gun violence occurs to the person.

¨Absolutely not, it feels really good and not bad you don’t hear anything dangerous and feels safe, it does not affect me because I can go play soccer without a bullet in me,¨ eighth grader Aaron Luna said.

Some kids or families might live in a safer environment than others, which does not expose them to such gun violence. Gun violence is not as normalized to them but they might also be less aware of their environment.

Gun violence in Los Angeles has been down in percentage. In 2024 there were 423 homicides with the rate being down by 14 percent. Overall gun violence has decreased over the years from 1987 to 2025.

During the 90s and early 2000s the amount of homicides occurred in the 900s or 1000s but now it has hit the 400-600 so what people can hope now,hopefully that sooner or later the amounts go down and hopefully have none 

Just like the homicide rate going down, so is the amount of kids that live in a neighborhood without gun violence. According to a poll, 77.7% of students live in a neighborhood without gun violence compared to 22.3% who do. People can hope that in the future that there are zero kids who live in a neighborhood without gun violence.