As Birmingham approaches a record number of homicides, Mayor Randall Woodfin has addressed rampant gun violence and vowed that 2025 will be better.

Flanked by 145 guns in the police department’s evidence room, Woodfin recorded a 35-minute-plus video in the Real Time Crime Center that talks about the crimes and the need for a change of heart.

There have been 146 murders so far in Birmingham this year. One of those was a fatal shooting of a police officer that BPD does not include in its homicide count.

Through 2022, there were 144 homicides, the highest in recent memory was 141 in 1991. The city ended 2023 with 135 homicides.

The all-time record for homicides in Birmingham was in 1933, with 148 murders. The city in 1933 had a population of approximately 269,000 people. Today, it is below 197,000.

“I’m standing here in front of all these guns. Every one of these guns that you see has taken someone’s life, taken someone’s family member’s life, taken a community member,” Woodfin said.

“Birmingham is a city that is unfortunately reaching a historic level of homicide victims not seen since 1933,” he said.

“So when I step back from that and think about it, these are not just numbers. These are lives, these are family members, these are siblings, brothers, sisters. … These are victims and family members who will not have the chance to see their family member, their loved one on Thanksgiving.”

Woodfin said America celebrates gun violence.

“It’s embedded in so many everyday things we do,” he said, citing movies, television shows, video games and music. “Violence Courses Through Our Culture.”

“I often tell people that when America gets a cold, Alabama gets the flu,” Woodfin said. “But I also tell people that when Alabama gets the flu, Birmingham unfortunately gets pneumonia.”

“In this American epidemic of gun violence,” he said, “Birmingham is seeing the worst.”

Woodfin noted that two of his cousins ​​have been killed this year, as well as a former classmate who was among the four killed in a mass shooting at the Trendsetters lounge in north Birmingham.

“It’s been a difficult year in terms of gun violence in our city,” he said.

Violence, he said, is not new to Birmingham.

“It’s always been too much, whether it’s been lynching, bombings and now, in 2024, gun violence,” he said.

Woodfin talked about the array of weapons that surrounded him during the video. The display included AR-style guns, Dracos, and Glock switch-geared pistols.

He said that while he supports the right to own guns for self-defense, the guns before him were obviously used for reasons other than that.

“These are usually young men driving with them in a car,” he said.

He talked about the need for gun safety and stricter gun laws, but said a big part of the problem is human behavior.

“More laws will not prevent every homicide. More police will not prevent every homicide,” Woodfin said. “No Superman is coming to save Birmingham. What can prevent more homicides is changing hearts and behaviors.”

Most Birmingham residents, he said, are good people.

“We have a handful of people who are reckless, who don’t care, a handful of people who walk around like they’re terrorists. Instead of letting them extinguish life, we will extinguish them,” said the mayor.

“As our new acting chief said, we need to create a culture where we make those who commit violent crimes feel uncomfortable in this community.”

Woodfin said the problem can be solved, but it will take the community as a whole.

“I care about saving lives, but damn it’s going to take more than one man, it’s going to take more than one person, it’s going to take more than the mayor,” he said.

“2025 will be better than 2024 and it will be because we arrest more shooters. It will be because you will help us,” he said.

“You’re going to report crime, you’re going to report people who hurt people. It will be less because you won’t be providing safe harbor to people who hurt children. It’s going to happen because we’re going to provide more resources to people who are here in the community who need them because you’re going to come to us and say you need help and we’re going to provide it.”