A 15-year-old Allentown boy was gunned down in broad daylight Sept. 25 by a 16-year-old after an argument between them, according to Allentown police and Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin.

In the Roxborough section of Philadelphia, five teenagers were ambushed in a hail of 30 bullets as they left a football scrimmage. One of them, a 14-year-old from Havertown, died at the scene.

This continuing pattern of violence in larger cities across Pennsylvania makes us wonder whether any of us are safe. Living in small communities such as Coaldale, Beaver Meadow, Kunkletown and Cherryville might give us the false security that it can’t happen here, and we pray that it never does, but the truth is that it can happen anywhere.

We need look no further than the area’s largest city, Allentown, to see an example of what activist Hasshan Batts, executive director of Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, calls a “city under siege.” Since the start of the summer, more than 40 people have been shot. A growing number of them are kids in their teens.

Sixty miles to the south of Allentown is the state’s largest city. Philadelphia has seen an unprecedented numbers of shootings in recent years, and this year indications are that it will be another record number.

Philadelphia has already recorded more than 400 homicide deaths this year - 23 of them children, including a 16-year-old boy who was fatally shot three times in the face and a 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed in the middle of the afternoon near his high school. It is becoming an all-too-common experience for uninvolved bystanders to be struck, and in some cases killed, by stray bullets. The number of deaths in the City of Brotherly Love is on pace to surpass last year’s count, which was the highest in more than six decades. Over the Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia, more than 25 people were shot, nine of whom died as gun violence soars unabated.

The Roxborough shootings occurred just hours after Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order banning guns from city recreation centers, parks and pools.

Meanwhile, Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, who was elected last November, pledged that one of his top priorities is to make Allentown a safe city. New Police Chief Charles Roca has pledged the same. Admirable, to be sure, but resolve alone will not cut it.

It is sad to see what is happening in Allentown, because the city post-COVID is in the midst of a revitalization boom with its downtown development, trendy restaurants and PPL center, home of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms minor league hockey team, and venue for many big-name entertainment acts that have attracted thousands to the downtown area.

It wasn’t that many years ago when area residents would not be caught dead in Allentown, because it was a dangerous place to be, especially after dark. This attitude was gradually shifting as the city spruced itself up and the crime rate dropped dramatically, but now many of those past fears are returning, and city officials are concerned that the gun violence that has sprung up this year will undo much of the progress of the last decade.

The latest Allentown killing has brought the usual outpouring of grief followed by anger and resolve to “do something” about the wave of violence that is killing our kids. But what to do?

Officials appoint panels to come up with ideas to stem the violence. They suggest more recreational activities, more this and more that, but I contend that they are missing the key component to solve our violence problem - the realization that life is precious, that this is not a competitive game to see who can be king of the hill, that shooting and killing a rival or another person as a type of revenge is not the answer to solving simmering problems.

We have learned throughout the centuries that we cannot legislate morality. It must start from within. It comes from understanding how to deal with issues without resorting to violence. Parents, educators and others involved with a child’s formative years all have a hand in showing children what’s right and what is not acceptable. At some point, the child must take responsibility for his or her actions.

Coming from a tough coal-region community, I had my share of brush-ups with my fists, never weapons, but when I came home with cuts and bruises, my mother’s intervention made a big impression on me. She taught me that my actions had consequences.

Not every child has this kind of loving and nurturing parent, I realize this, but we need interventionists who will serve in this capacity to show kids the straight-and-narrow.

All of us have a role in helping our community’s young people by being good examples on how to solve our differences, not through angry threats and vile language, but through acceptable societal norms.

Dr. Martin Luther King had the right idea: “Hearts must be changed,” he said. “Education must play a great role in changing the heart, but while it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.”

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.