Guest columnist Chris Carrel’s article “Caught in the crossfire of gun violence” (Aug. 23) does point out a concern that my family has, which is that we no longer have that sense of safety and well being that we once had living in Federal Way.

Youth violence is our particular concern.

The Lakota Middle School field’s incident, involving a 15-year-old boy, was notable because it was a deadly drive-by shooting.

However, all you have to do is read from Chris Carrel’s article to The Mirror’s crime blotter to find incidences that could have been just as deadly.

Here are just two examples: On Aug. 14, a victim was approached by a large group, who I would suspect were young people, and was punched and kicked causing loss of teeth, lacerations and a broken nose. On Aug. 15, a suspect, most likely a young person again, drove through a parking lot firing a 9-mm automatic pistol.

Gun violence among our youth seems to be on the increase. Chris Carrel mentioned last summer’s Steel Lake incident involving a group of young people, where a girl was shot and is now paralyzed because of it. Two years ago, 24 youths fought an apparent ethnic gang fight where one youth was shot. My son’s boss, who lives near a high school, had just a few months ago seen a running gun battle go by his home, from cars with young people shooting at each other. And, in the last year my wife and I have seen two separate incidences where young people were being handcuffed, while one of the police officers involved was holding a pistol that was obviously not his.

We agree with Chris Carrel’s assessment that cities and communities do hit a tipping point, where violence becomes an unacceptable but an expected norm for what goes on there.

We also believe that this should not be allowed to happen here, not in Federal Way.

We need to work together to bring our community back to the safe place it once was; we need to stop the violence now.

Bob Kellogg and family

Federal Way