You can’t tell me these kids can’t look around and see what happens to the older gang members? Kids aren’t stupid. If they do choose this lifestyle, then like the rest of life, they’ll pay a price, whether they fully understand it our not. It’s just the way life is.
At the age most gang members join, no they don’t. Most young people don’t have an appreciation for the consequences of their actions, that’s why the hospitals are full of young people having done acts of stupidity (criminal and noncriminal).
It takes until about the age of 25 for the brain to develop the synapses needed for the appreciation of consequences.
You’re not going to convince some young person to not join a gang by having to line up gang bangers against a wall and shooting them, then putting their heads on a pike for all to see.