TOLEDO, Ohio — The city of Toledo will host its third community town hall to reduce gun violence Saturday on the east side at Waite High School.
Those who live on the east side believe several factors are leading to the rise in gun violence.
"I refer to the east side as God's country but there's an issue with gun violence," Donald Reilly said, "with the youth getting their hands on guns."
Reilly has lived on the east side his whole life but says things have changed. especially for young people.
"Back in the day I had the Brady Bunch and things like that," he added, "I didn't have all this violence and things like that young kids have today."
Others like Anthony Kaczmarek, who also grew up in Toledo, and has lived on the east side for 12 years, say things have gone downhill.
"When I was younger, in the 1970s, Toledo was the bomb city, it was the greatest thing," he said. "Now it's it's, I'd like to move."
Kaczmarek points to the parents as part of the problem.
"If the parents were keeping mind of the children, it wouldn't be happening," he said. "You know both parents are sometimes working or neither are working and some just don't care about their kids."
Reilly agrees that parents should be more involved but admits many face other challenges with money and quality of life, with many working several jobs.
"This ain't leave it to beaver days you know," Reilly said, "this is everyone is struggling to make a dollar and pay their bills."
Dale Robinson, who lives in east Toledo with his wife and kids, says a lot of parents these days are young and grew up themselves with similar problems.
"All these young parents still have some of the ways of the street," he said, "so the kids pick up on that."
He says many families are missing a parent and they look to others like friends and cousins but they're not always the best role models.
But ultimately he believes there needs to be more for kids to do.
"We need more recreational things for these kids to do," he said. "Without these recreational things to do, they have nothing but trouble to get into."