Mayor Wharton to Unveil Gun Violence Plan

New Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. will embark soon on a communitywide plan to address gun violence in the city.

Wharton, who's been in office a month, said it boils down to a health care problem.

"Here's the comparison I'd like to make: As horrible as the swine flu is, we have sometimes more deaths from handguns in one week than we'll have from the whole epidemic of swine flu," Wharton told The Memphis Daily News.

"We somehow have to bring the same level of awareness to our community as a whole with respect to handguns, gun crime and our youngsters being killed, so that it's not merely a matter of, 'What's the police department going to do? What's the district attorney going to do? What's the sheriff going to do?'

"It's much more than a sheriff, district attorney or police department matter. It's a health care issue."

Wharton plans to tap a steering committee composed of officials from hospitals, churches and law enforcement. He also focused on the problem as county mayor before being elected city mayor.

Wharton has yet to say what his decision will be about the future of Police Director Larry Godwin.

"Of course, we'll have strong, unrelenting enforcement" as part of his crime and gun violence abatement plan, Wharton said. "You don't just walk in and make a change at the top."

The mayor said his priorities include determining what the department's mission should be, whether the department is executing that mission and if it has the resources it needs.

"At the right time, we'll take stock and see how well-equipped (the department) is to see what the solution entails," Wharton said.

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Information from: The Memphis Daily News, http://www.memphisdailynews.com