City Paper: What's the goal of the march?

Bilal Qayyum : We hope to get "One Gun a Month" legislation passed and to raise the consciousness of the legislators, and even the governor. Besides the gun issue, they also need to realize we need real employment opportunities targeted toward men in these [troubled] neighborhoods. I'm trying to keep it simple: Eliminate the guns and bring real jobs here.

CP: How do you teach these shooters to respect life?

BQ: We have change their mind-set, and it takes time, much in the same way it took time to develop the mind-set that it's OK to kill in the first place. They've got to see hope. A lot of these guys, they're unemployed and the only way for them to generate income is to do something illegal. We're trying to chip away at that, figure out how to get them jobs. If 50 to 60 percent of white men were unemployed, the city would stop in its tracks! When they see that there's opportunity, guys on their block getting up and going to work, then they'll think twice about what they're doing.

CP: How much of an issue is the relationship between police and residents in tough neighborhoods?

BQ: There's still a problem in some spots, but with the [police] commissioner's move toward more community policing, it's much less than in the past, and much better than what people think. Of course, the bad guys are always going to be pissed off at the cops, but they're the same ones who are terrorizing our neighborhoods.

CP: Do people across the state even care about what's going on here?

BQ: Two years ago, we did a bus tour of the state — York, Reading, other cities. We found elected officials, a lot of whom were Republican, and residents who understood what we were talking about because there were problems with violence in their towns, too. I mean, we have Bloods in the Poconos now, and the gangs are getting integrated. This is no longer a Philadelphia, urban, black problem.