Jamestown has seen four targeted shootings in the past three weeks.

On Aug. 3, city police responded to Lafayette Street near Isabella Avenue for a reported gunshot complaint, with a man arriving at UPMC Chautauqua a short time later with an injury police said was consistent with a gunshot wound. A short time later officers were dispatched to a report of a gunshot complaint in the area near Columbia Avenue. Officers found rounds had struck a home in the neighborhood, with no injuries to anyone in the neighborhood.

Three more shootings Friday and Saturday followed. The first shooting on Friday left a person with life-threatening injuries after a shooting near the Wine Cellar and Wintergarden Plaza. Later Friday officers responded to the 800 block of Prendergast Avenue for a report of a victim of a gunshot with minor injures. The person was treated and released with non-life threatening injuries. Around 1 a.m. Saturday city police officers responded to Victoria Avenue for another report of a gunshot complaint in which one person was taken to an out-of-town hospital for treatment of life-threatening injuries. One person has been charged in relation to Saturday’s shooting. third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

According to the most recent Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative monthly report, Jamestown reported three shooting incidents from January through June 2024, one more than in the same time period for 2023. Add at least four for August and the trend is moving in the wrong direction.

The fact that gun violence in Jamestown isn’t random should be comforting for most city residents who do their best to stay out of situations that would place one in harm’s way. It is not, in part because most city residents know that people firing weapons in our neighborhoods aren’t trained snipers. They aren’t military trained marksmen. And that means the odds of innocent people increase every time we see these types of incidents.

How do we protect people from becoming victims of someone else’s beef? We can start not by penalizing legal gun owners, but by more quickly holding accountable those who are found with illegal weapons. The person charged in relation to Saturday’s shooting has been charged twice with gun-related crimes and was charged as recently as December in a third incident with criminal possession of a weapon.

If we want to get tough on shootings, get tough on those who have – and use – illegal guns before they’re used. This isn’t a police problem, nor is it necessarily a court problem. It’s a legislative problem that could be fixed in three days in Albany by passing legislation that increases penalties on those who simply possess illegal guns and, if those guns are used, longer prison sentences.

Enough is enough.