TOLEDO, Ohio — Gabby Mukiira, the 2023 Kid Mayor of Toledo, applied for the position to help curb gun violence in the city.
The fourth-grade student at Grove Patterson Elementary was appointed by Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz in early March alongside a 12-member Kid Council. The leadership team wants to help fix an issue that affects youths in the city just like them.
There have been 11 homicides so far in Toledo in 2023, and six of the victims were either 15 or 16 years old. In 2022, nine of the 66 total homicides were minors. In 2021, 10 of the 70 total homicides were minors; and in 2020, there nine of the 62 total homicides were minors. Mukiira said it's time we face the problem together.
She has made that her first act in office by getting her school principal and counselors to address the problems with her peers.
"I don't like it and I get upset about it, so when my mom told me about this I said I can make a change about people doing that," Mukiira said.
She said the suspects in these crimes need to know they are impacting their community in a negative way. She believes that change has to start from within them.
"Focus on themselves and what they're doing and see what they're doing so they won't hurt other people," Mukiira said.
She believes there is a rise in gun violence because the community needs to heal.
"Hurt people hurt people," she explained. "People that are hurt go and hurt other people." It's an assertion that mirrors repeated calls by city leaders and grassroots organizations to invest more in mental health services and potentially curb gun violence by solving family issues at home.
Evelyn Bush, the previous and inaugural kid mayor, agrees with her successor.
"More and more people are getting anxiety and depression and it's getting worse," Bush said.
While she was mayor, Bush said the major issues included eliminating blight in the community. But now, she thinks kids need to open up and adults need to listen.
"Listen to kids and ask them questions. Kids have great ideas and you really need to listen to them more," Bush said.
She said kids who struggle with mental illness need patience, and the same goes for those kids who are quick to anger.
"They try to get it over with really quickly, but they need to be slower and more gentle and don't force it," Bush said.
The 13 Toledo youths in charge of representing their peers in the Glass City want to address three issues: gun violence, mental health and environmental issues.
Dexton Cooper, one of the Kid Council members, is a fourth grader who was at the Whitmer High School football game in 2022 when three people were injured in a shooting.
Cooper said after that game, he felt scared but wanted to be part of the solution. So, he applied for Kid Council.
He hopes for an end to the rash of gun violence in the U.S. so kids like him don't have to fear gunmen attacking public spaces or their lives being cut short by a stray bullet. But the ratio of guns to people in the U.S. makes that hope feel more and more like a pipe dream every day.
He said there are too many guns per household and suggested the government more harshly restrict gun ownership.
According to a 2018 report from Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey, there are about 393 million privately-owned firearms in the U.S. The U.S. population is about 330 million people.
Cooper described his experience at the Whitmer High School game as a simple evening football game shattered by the terror-inducing pop of gunfire.
"I was watching the game and all of a sudden the gunshots came out, so I dropped to the ground and when they stopped everyone went in Whitmer (High School). It was scary because you wouldn't expect it if it was a normal average day on your Fridays," Cooper said.
Cooper hopes to become the Toledo mayor -- or even the U.S. president -- one day so he can end gun violence.
While current kid mayor Gabby Mukiira is creating change through city government, she has also created change in her school.
"Our next step is I'm going to get my principal, my counselor and some kids at my school to talk about gun violence and unkindness in our city," she said.