Former professional athletes announce fight against Macon gun violence

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Former professional and collegiate athletes announced their commitment to fighting gun violence in Macon Monday.

The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office says 20 people have been shot and killed so far in 2017.

“It’s disturbing to think about all the kids that’s been killed,” Norm Nixon said. Nixon graduated from Southwest High School and went on to win a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. He stood with four of his former teammates in front of a students at Cirrus Academy Monday afternoon. Former Mayor C. Jack Ellis organized the press conference.

One of Nixon’s old high school teammates, Myles Patrick, took the podium not just to address students, but parents.

“The people at home got to start doing more,” Patrick said. “You got to teach your kid self respect, respect for others, and respect for authority.”

Patrick and the other star athletes, that included women and men from across sports, are making themselves available for kids to talk to.

“If you focus on it and you put all your time into it, that’s what your going to be good at so if you’re good at gang violence that’s because your doing it all the time and that’s what they don’t understand,” Patrick said.

The athletes agreed that growing up, young people didn’t fight with guns; they fought with their hands. As Nixon thought back on what growing up in the South was like during the 60’s, he remembered his high school principal.

“I couldn’t be bad in school, because she had the green light to whip me in school, give me a little spanking, and then I’d get it when I went home,” Nixon said.

Nixon lives in California but visits Macon regularly. Many of the athletes at the news conference are currently employed in Middle Georgia.