I've often thought that we should issue firearms to gang members. No permits, no background checks, no age restrictions, no nothing. With plenty of ammo.
"Then you wake up" indeed. I'd add "training in aiming" to the list, because their lousy accuracy is how a lot of innocents get harmed.
I've actually written a paper comparing gangs to "primitive" hunter-gatherer tribes and their inter-relations with other tribes. It's quite fascinating how many parallels there are.
Induction ceremonies(warrior/adult ceremony), conflict management, deliberately NOT attempting to be as lethal as they possibly can be because that encourages the other tribes/gangs to go 'full hammer' and that'd kill too many of your warriors off, etc...