Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
On average, that came to seven youths every day - For every U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan during 11 years of war, at least 13 children were shot and killed in America.
More than 450 kids didn't make it to kindergarten.
Another 2,700 or more were killed by a firearm before they could sit behind the wheel of a car.
Every day, on average, seven children were shot dead.
A News21 investigation of child and youth deaths in America between 2002 and 2012 found that at least 28,000 children and teens 19-years-old and younger were killed with guns. Teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 made up over two-thirds of all youth gun deaths in America.
The News21 findings are compiled in the most complete database to date from records obtained from 49 state health departments and FBI Supplementary Homicide Reports.
"It's an unacceptable number and it should be regardless of where you stand on gun-owning ideology," said Colette Martin, a member of Parents Against Gun Violence. "The numbers are that high and we are as a country ignoring them."
Most of those killed by firearms, 62 percent, were murdered and the majority of victims were black children and teens. Suicides resulted in 25 percent of the firearm deaths of young people: The majority of them were white. More than 1,100 children and teens were killed by a gun that accidentally discharged.
An epidemic of violence
Dawnya Johnson, whose cousin was shot and killed when he was 17 years old, is a member of the Baltimore-based Intersection, a youth advocacy group.
Zeke Cohen, executive director of The Intersection, a Baltimore youth advocacy group, said the dialogue on guns only seems to pierce the national consciousness when there's a mass shooting in an affluent white suburban community, such as the one where he grew up.
The American gun debate, he sa
id, rarely takes into account the number of black youth who are murdered every day.
"We as a country tolerate violence when it is in low-income black communities," Cohen said. "Because we've come to accept that the acceptable face of gun deaths is black, we allow it to continue to happen."
Dawnya Johnson was 11 years old when her already broken life was shattered further. Her mom was addicted to drugs, her dad was in prison, and she was tossed from foster home to foster home. She found solace in her older cousin, but that protection was left on a bloody sidewalk. Johnson's cousin was shot six times in the back and he bled to death before the ambulance got to the scene. He was 17.
The national News21 Initiative brings together a select group of student journalists to produce a major national investigation into a topic of wide interest. This year, News21 has documented the struggle over gun rights and regulations in America. Under the direction of some of the nations best professional investigative journalists, 29 students from 16 universities have traveled the country to produce text, videos and interactive graphics to tell the story "Gun Wars: The Struggle Over Rights and Regulation in America." Over the next two weeks we will be featuring much of their reporting. You can view the entire project at the News21 website.
[editors note: This effort is part of a much larger biased expose on gun ownership. For instance, this article is missing any hint of balance and borders on advocacy rather than news. Readers are inundated with concepts without proof of concept or back up material justifying the conclusions contained in the article. It is time for gun owners to awaken to the fact that there is a 'huge' effort to steal their freedoms and that included in this effort is the sacrifice of individual safety!]