Too Many Fallen Soldiers

Now, I am not even in my twenties and I know about ten people who have been murdered due to gang violence since 2004. Is that a record? Probably not for all, but for me it is. I was very close with half of them. Close meaning went to elementary school playing on the monkey bars together, watching them play little league and high school football. Those times were sweet and innocent; only getting in trouble for pushing a girl in the lunch line or taking her backpack and running, so how did their innocence become a bad habit? Of course it was influence, growing up in a single parent household (mother only), wrong crowd, and possibly media, but because of their choices, do they deserve to lose their lives?Who knows when their last day will be, but no one wants to lose their life to a gun or knife.
The part that really hurts, is when the case goes unsolved. Out of those ten people that I know, only two cases have been solved to date. Why? A possibility could be the neighborhood. Police are tired of reporting to the same neighborhood about the same story, just a different person. They don't close the case, they just stop investigating. It hurts because those people need to be brought to justice; at least for the lost ones.
I know that gang violence is taking over but what will this world look like in 5, 10, or even 15 years? If my generation was influenced, I am sure the next generations to follow will be influenced in a worst manner and the world will have many more lost soldiers. It is already bad enough that minorities are the biggest population in our jails, how can we prevent them from being the biggest population in our cemetaries?

Rest In Paradise to all....