WORCESTER, Mass. - The memorial on Allendale Street is far from the only one city residents have seen in recent weeks. Another deadly shooting in Worcester has some scratching their head, and asking why this keeps happening.

Dr. Michael Hirsh says while deadly shootings are down compared to years past, the number of shootings in general are still high.

Hirsh, who helped develop the gun safety campaign Goods for Guns, says children need to learn about the dangers of firearms as soon as possible, even as young as fifth or sixth grade.

"That's just when they are making, many of them, their decisions about smoking, about joining a gang, about whether or not they're going to be an athlete or whether they're going to be a computer person," Hirsh said. "This is a very seminal time. It seems like a young age, 10 or 11, but that's where it's at."

Worcester Police are yet to identify the victim of this weekend's shooting, but say a 24-year-old man was killed.

Following the tragedies, the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute and Worcester's Department of Public Health hosted a seminar Tuesday on how families can cope with losing a loved one to homicide, while also addressing the issue of gun violence.

"We believe that homicide is a human rights issue," said MarcCawley Bercy, the institute's Community Outreach Coordinator. "So, emotional stress plus financial stress plus physical stress leads to community instability."

Also last month, Worcester City Councilor at-large Kate Toomey called for more stringent penalties for those illegally possessing firearms. Toomey would cite police data, which shows 115 firearms that were connected to criminal activity last year. 

"I am tired about reading that same story over and over that the perpetrator had been in jail for similar crimes and unlawful gun possession," said Toomey. "If you want to save lives, let's start by ensuring that the consequences are significant enough, that people who are repeat offenders will think twice and be deterred by the length of sentence."

Hirsh says a moving forward, his hope is to have some type of communication with local school students, and if there was a demand to expand Goods for Guns, it's not something he's opposed to.