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GREENSBORO - Police Sgt. Gerald Stephens saw it inked across the side of Poppa's tennis shoes, and those two words said everything about the motivation of this guy he just arrested.

GET MONEY.

"Poppa" was Deandre Jamar Purvis. According to court records, Purvis and a few of his teenage buddies had stolen a Saturn and robbed three restaurants and four convenience stores in a 15-day streak right after Thanksgiving 2004.

And each time, Purvis and his crew had a handgun. In one case, they kicked restaurant employees and beat them with brass knuckles, pistols and their fists.

All for $400. At the time, Purvis had just turned 17.

He fancied himself a gangster. He ended up a high school dropout behind bars, with a prison sentence that could keep him there until he turns 74.

Right now, in our city, Stephens says there are more out there like Poppa.

Do the numbers. Violent crimes such as rape and murder are going down, but the number of handguns the Greensboro Police Department seize, find or confiscate is going up.

And these aren't small-caliber handguns. These are large-caliber weapons, all geared to intimidate, injure or kill.

More than likely, police say, these handguns were stolen during residential break-ins. And over the past few years, police are pulling these weapons more often from suspects barely old enough to vote - if they can vote at all.

Stephens has a name for them. He calls them "kids.''

"These kids, they need love, and they need hope that they can do something with their lives,'' says Stephens, a 23-year police veteran who supervises the eight detectives in the department's robbery squad.

"They're not doing good in school, they're not going to get a scholarship to play college basketball and they think they're not going to have a good life, so they go out and break into a house because there is nothing else to do.

"Kids,'' he says. "They only see their future 30 minutes at a time.''

Last week, during a news conference, police Chief Tim Bellamy announced a set of initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence after a recent spate of shootings - including the slaying of an N.C. A&T student - rattled our city.

But underneath the bright lights of local TV, Bellamy mentioned something that caught the attention of everyone in the room: "There's more guns in the streets, and they're in the hands of younger offenders.''

Ask Bellamy or anyone else in headquarters on Washington Street, and they roll out a litany of ideas about why kid offenders grab a gun and go off.

They want to have fun or gain street cred. Or they're bowing to peer pressure, living out a fantasy or becoming brain-numb to violence they see all too often on TV and in movies or video games.

Still, who really knows?

Take the case of Wesley Alexander Knight, the musician with a baby face.

In the summer of 2006, he went on a nine-day crime spree in which he and two of his buddies committed 13 robberies. And almost every time, he had a 45-caliber pistol in his hand.

He used the pistol to steal wallets, purses, a Penn State ring and a package of M&Ms that cost $1.

At the time, Knight was 18. He and his girlfriend had a baby daughter. Now, Knight is expected to be behind bars until he turns 41. When he gets out, his daughter will be grown.

During his January 2007 sentencing, Knight apologized. He called himself a "follower,'' a guy dealing with a drug habit and going along with what his friends wanted to do.

Yet, read the statements from his victims, including a UNCG graduate student robbed 20 feet from his Chapman Street apartment. They can't sleep. They can't walk alone at night. They don't trust people.

They can't shake the image of that gun inches from their face.

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com