After two deadly shootings in the first week of the new year, gun violence is fresh on the minds of a lot of people in Charlotte.

It was also one of the things discussed during a recent Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department retreat.

Right now, police are investigating two murders that have happened in 2013. One man was killed near a shopping center on Farm Pond Lane. Just a few days earlier, police said two men were shot and one of them killed during a drug deal on Goldfields Drive. 

Within the past week, neighbors said someone randomly shot into five homes on Kennon Street in the Belmont neighborhood.  Eyewitness News was there as officers searched in west Charlotte after two people were hit by bullets on Davenport Street. Also, in the past two days, there have been reports of shots being fired into two homes in a north Charlotte neighborhood.

"You just can't keep guns, it seems like, away from some of these people,” resident David McDonald said. “They (are) going to get them regardless."

CMPD Deputy Chief Vicki Foster said one of the problems is many of the people pulling the triggers have dangerous criminal pasts.

"It kind of goes to say whenever you see one that's had a violent past and they are still carrying a firearm, the chances of them using it again in some crime, or especially a serious violent crime, is probably pretty good," Foster said.

One way officers hope to get the guns out of their hands this year is by continuing the Firearm by Felon program launched last May.  It lets people anonymously call a hotline to report a felon with a gun in exchange for cash.  It landed 14 people in jail and took 40 guns off the street last year.  

While she couldn't get into specifics, Foster said officers did brainstorm strategies during a recent department retreat that they may use this year to help curb gun violence.

"Going forward into 2013, I think you'll see us do a lot of things to involve the community and reduce violent crime," she said.