NCJ Number
153700
Date Published
1993
Length
89 pages
Annotation
This paper recommends a policy strategy vis-a-vis the emotional subject of children and guns, focusing on issues including accidental firearms deaths, guns used in suicide, gun use at school, and juvenile crime.
Abstract
The study results forming the basis of these recommendations found that less than one percent of deaths of children under the age of 15 are caused by guns. However, gun-related homicides are very high among inner-city black teenaged males. Accidental gun deaths by children have declined by 50 percent since the 1970s as a result of safety education. Neither the youth suicide rate nor the prevalence of guns in suicide have changed much over the past 20 years. This report maintains that claims about the frequency with which teenagers carry guns to school are exaggerated, with 90 percent of gun-carrying youths doing so for protection. The four-step proposal to reduce youth crime outlined here involves implementing effective juvenile justice solutions, educating children to have responsible attitudes toward firearms, moving beyond symbolic and badly conceived gun control laws, and dealing with social pathologies that contribute to delinquency. 230 notes