RICHMOND, Va. -- An event in Richmond this weekend is focused on raising awareness about gun violence in the city.
"Gloves Over Guns" is an annual event started by coach Pat and his son Malik of the East End Boxing Club. Their mission is to raise awareness and about gun violence and teach critical life skills.
"We don't have a solution for all the gun violence but we just try to, you know, show ways of awarness to the kids and let them know there's other ways to solve things and we use gloves instead of picking up a gun," Pat said.
"We know that young people have a lot of things built up in them and just the physical activity of boxing and the mindset that you have to have, the concentration of boxing is not just fighting," Sheriff Irving said.
Sheriff Irving partners with the East End Boxing Club. Her Peace and Solidarity walk leads into the "Gloves Over Guns" event.
"We want everybody to know that we want the violence to stop. We want to live in peace, we want to work in peace and we have to build our rapport with the individuals in the city and in our community," Irving said.
"I want the local community to understand and the local officials to understand that there's no jurisdiction fore the crime so I don't want to say because you're in Henrico or you're in Richmond, Chesterfield, all of it leaks into each other, so if we're teaching the kids not to be territorial, we shouldn't be," Pat said.
Saturday's free event starts at noon with the Peace and Solidarity walk from the Richmond City Justice Center to Armstrong High School where families who have lost loved ones to gun violence will be honored. This will be followed by amateur boxing.
For more information, call (804) 382-7788 or check out the boxing club's Instagram account.
