Anti-violence committee chairman Randy Horton issued a rallying cry for Bermuda to rescue its young men from their deadly spiral.“We have to find a way to save our young men,” said Mr Horton as he kicked off a House of Assembly debate on the gun violence which has claimed 16 lives since May 2009.“In saving our young men, we are saving our community. This crime and gang violence must stop.”Mr Horton said the joint select committee on gun and gang crime had heard many analysts tell how young black men turn to gang membership after getting trapped in a cycle of poverty, anger and frustration.“Young men who don’t have a good family around them. Lots of times they move towards the gangs because they don’t feel as though they are connected,” he said.“The gang is the one place where they are able to get that connection.”Warning Bermuda’s future prosperity is at risk, he continued: “People come here because it’s a safe place.“The reason why international business developed here is because it was considered to be a safe place. The reason tourists came here was because it was considered to be a safe place.“We are not at a point where we are not safe place, but we want to be able to come to grips with the challenge that we have now.”Mr Horton was speaking late on Monday night to launch his motion to discuss the report compiled by the joint select committee.He explained how the committee had listened to 45 presentations from organisations and individuals including former gang members in its work.Among a raft of recommendations, the group suggested gang members take part in peace talks, urged against releasing dangerous criminals too early in their sentences and called for stronger methods of rehabilitation.“Bermudians were consistently complaining and concerned about the risk in violent crime in our Country,” said the Southampton West MP.“This drove me to push for the setting up of the joint select committee to look into the issue of crime and gang violence in Bermuda.“There was a sense that the safety of our constituents was being shattered.”National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief spoke next, admitting he had been in denial that young black men faced specific difficulties in Bermuda’s society.“Many of us, myself included, have been in denial of there being a separate problem that our young black males encounter that is different from their white counterparts, or their female counterparts,” he said.But studies have now shown that to be the case, said Mr Perinchief.He pointedly addressed black people, saying there had to be an end to denial, and honest introspection on an individual basis.Mr Perinchief noted that the root causes of dysfunction in the young black male population were “deep and long developing problems that will not be solved overnight.”Racism was a factor, according to some studies, he said.“A Truth and Reconciliation Commission could help us to move forward as part of the healing process,” he noted. And he lamented an “elemental failure to teach African and black history in our schools”, while noting the Professor Melodye Micere VanPutten’s Ashay programme was “rejected by black people”.He faulted “black denial black denial of our history, black denial of our culture and black denial of who we are.“We embrace every culture under the sun except black culture,” Mr Perinchief continued.“We don’t trust each other. And a prophet is never without honour except in his own country. We take each other for granted. We treat each other badly. Because perhaps we don’t like what we see in the mirror.”Mr Perinchief said: “This report strikes at the core of our fear. It tends to strip us bare of any disguise that we may want to have.” And he called it a “very candid picture of Bermudian society.”Opposition Leader Craig Cannonier spoke next with a rousing speech supporting the report and praising the Chairman of the Joint Select Committee Randy Horton for “his tenacity and insistence” on making it happen.He said the report was an indictment on Bermuda.“This report is heading us in the right direction,” Mr Cannonier said. He said gangs had been around for a long time but had become more organised and “violence had become a way of life and not just a last option.”He told of how he was working the graveyard shift at the Esso 24 hour gas station one night when he came across two rival gangs about to get violent.“What concerns me is that we have a society that sits around and watches it for entertainment. That we have a group of people come around every Saturday night, every Friday night, to see who’s going to get beat up, who’s going to show a gun, to watch the prostitution and our senior members of this community picking them up. Watching gang bangers, conniving and we have done nothing,” he said.Mr Cannonier said the work of the committee showed that bipartisanship works.Opportunities must be created for young black men to express their creativity, he added.He noted the report’s findings that the system was failing our young black men. “We continue to cut off the lizards tail rather than going after the head who has taken advantage of some young black male who find themselves looking for some opportunity and looking for a way,” he said.“We have the ability to intervene family by family at an early stage.”He called for a national plan “like tomorrow”.Ruling party backbencher Dale Butler said that the report was not an indictment on society, noting that there were lots of people working through churches, clubs and community groups to provide “meaningful programmes for our young people.”But he lamented the scarcity of “leaders” who would give some time and attention to young people.The OBA’s Mark Pettingill spoke next, stressing that some of the young men who got into trouble with the law were innocent but victims of negative perceptions.“There’s nothing worse than taking a young man who is innocent and criminalising him.”But he said measures like CCTV monitoring were having an impact in reducing crime. He called on people to focus on the simple gestures like give a young man a book to read.“Just reach out to somebody and sit down and try to create a dialogue,” he said. “Sit down with the mothers that love their sons. Go to funerals and feel their grief.“Somehow we are not supporting those mothers. Somehow we have lost the plot.”And he noted that legislators had passed the Parental Responsibility Act, which contained measures such as youth curfews. “A 15-year-old on a school night has no business being on the street at 12 o’clock at night” and a police officer is supposed to ask if they need a lift or ask what they are doing out.He warned that, if police are not “made the heroes, the guardians” they could be viewed as the third gang.“We should be able to pull it back from the brink.”Community Development Minister Michael Weeks said that leaders should make sure they are seen in the sports clubs where young people hang out. “When you want to do a happy hour, go to one of those clubs that raised you. Because just by seeing you a lot of these young men look at you as a role model,” he said.“But you keep driving across, well, we’ll keep getting the results that we’ve got.”He said: “It’s not them and us. It’s us.”The OBA’s Patricia Gordon-Pamplin called on women to play a part. “As mothers, as aunts, as family members, sisters, we have an obligation to look out for not just our own children but for those children of our neighbours,” she said.“We need not shirk our responsibilities when we walk through the streets of Hamilton and we see young people behaving inappropriately to be able to approach them and let them know.”She said: “It is amazing how disarming women can be when in the midst of a bunch of hostile men, young people.”Shadow Estates Minister Michael Scott said on a recent trip to a West End cemetery he noted a high proportion of 19th Century headstones marked the death of men aged between 18 and 25.“The model Bermuda has now is of guns and driving deaths,” said the Sandys North MP.“There’s this model of the 21st Century condition in Bermuda, where young men are not making it up to 25.”Charlie Swan, who was elected as a United Bermuda Party MP commented how quickly young men can fall off the rails and questioned whether MPs are setting a good enough example with their own behaviour in the House.He said the report’s recommendation of peace talks is a good idea, and suggested taking gang leaders overseas to hammer out a solution.