Chicago (CNN) — Cedric Hawkins doesn’t take his age lightly. At 44, he’s had nine relatives killed by gun violence.

“Only one of my family members made it to be in his 40s,” Hawkins said.

After growing up around gangs in Chicago and having served time in prison, Hawkins now works with the anti-gun violence group Chicago CRED  in part as a violence mediator, trying to stop gun violence before it has the chance to start.

The longtime southside Chicago resident has personally seen a decrease in murders in his Pullman neighborhood this year and like other residents, he worries a National Guard deployment to his city could throw off a playbook that, at least for now, seems like it’s working, he said.

“The presence of military for me, would put our communities in a situation where they

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