Youth gun violence still rare

Most Americans agree that any violence involving guns and children is
a bad thing. However as political leaders issue more, often frantic,
calls for increased gun control measures — ostensibly to protect kids
— recent studies show that youth gun violence is not as prevalent as
the panic might suggest. And, according to one researcher, it is even
decreasing on the national level.

Specifically, a recent study said, murders of young adults by guns at
the nation’s schools are “atypical” of youth violence and account for
only about 1 percent of all youths killed by firearms.

According to a study
conducted by
the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) and published
by the University of Colorado, “during the 1990s most adolescent
homicides were committed in inner cities and outside of school.”

The study said six to seven adolescents are killed in the U.S. every
day, and are mostly minorities from the nation’s largest urban areas.

“Males are overwhelmingly the perpetrators in homicides involving
youth, accounting for more than 90 percent of incidents involving those
10-17 years of age,” the study showed. It also said that data showed
most male adolescents used handguns against their victims.

In fact, the study said, the 150 percent increase in youth gun
homicides between 1980 and 1995 were committed by males age 15 to 18,
and “was fueled entirely by the use of handguns.”

However, the study said, “despite an increase in gun carrying in
schools, [shootings] still remain relatively rare events.” And the study
gave no indication of the incidence of causative factors of youth gun
violence, such as drugs, alcohol, gang-related events, or other
influences.

“Since 1992, approximately 190 shooting deaths have occurred in
American schools (both student and faculty/staff),” the CSPV concluded.
“While clearly a serious issue, it must be noted that these 190
school-related deaths represent only about 1 percent of all youth killed
with guns at the present.”

But John R. Lott Jr., an economics professor and gun policy
researcher at the University of Chicago, said the absence of laws
allowing persons — including teachers — to carry concealed guns are
what has led to many “multiple victim shootings” like those at some of
the nation’s schools, as well as recent shootings in Atlanta and Los
Angeles.

“While arrest or conviction rates and the death penalty reduce
‘normal’ murder rates, our studies
(at the University
of Chicago Law School) find that the only policy factor to influence
multiple victim public shootings is the passage of concealed handgun
laws,” Lott told WorldNetDaily.

Lott admits that policymakers and the general public are more
sensitive to multiple victim shootings, and said recent events “have
added a sense of urgency to the problem.”

“There are few events that get instant national, or even
international, coverage as public multiple-victim shootings,” he said.
“But the answer is not calling for greater restriction to guns. We’ve
been doing that and it’s not working.”

“Rather than asking whether the solution is more gun control we
should be asking whether all the restrictions that we already have had
made things worse,” he said.

His studies show that the impact strict gun control laws have had on
major metropolitan areas has been devastating and actually contributes
to more gun-related violence.

“Criminals — who will always have guns whether you ban them
or not — love an unarmed population,” said Lott, who is taking a
position at Yale Law School in the fall. “It makes committing their
criminal acts less risky and hence, easier.”

Lott said his studies have “consistently and reliably” shown that
cities and states with concealed carry laws and more lenient gun control
have lower incidents of violent crime, including gun homicides.

“Figures for youth violence drop as well,” he said, though he
acknowledges that federal and state laws prohibit minors from carrying
concealed handguns.

“I think that it is extremely important that this information get
out,” he said, regarding the validity of his research. “The notion that
people should be allowed to defend themselves appears to be completely
ignored in the current debate,” he added, noting that in some school
shooting cases, “armed teachers have used their weapons to either halt
the carnage early on, or prevent it altogether.”