Guns and Kids

4 Pages 895 Words

Children younger than nine years old have been caught with guns in schools. In today’s
society it is not unusual to pick up the newspaper and read a headline of a school
shooting, or turn on the television and see the footage of body bags being carried out of a
school. Gun related violence and our nations children has become a wide spread
epidemic. Every 100 hours, more youth die on the streets than were killed in the Persian
Gulf.
This epidemic saturates not only the gang-ridden environment in America’s cities,
but the supposedly more peaceful suburban world as well. In recent history youth
disputes that were once settled with bloody noses and black eyes now end in gunshots.
Kids are killing each other over a bump on the shoulder, a misinterpreted glance, romantic
complications or flashy clothes. Much of the blame is directed toward the feet of media
violence, Rambos killing at will. Some people believe that it is a reflection of how today’s
children are being raised.
Many inner-youths yield a “what the hell” attitude due to poverty and
hopelessness. Family breakdowns seem to further fuel this epidemic. Statistics from a
Baltimore public school student survey revealed that fifty-nine percent of males who come
from a one-parent or no-parent home have carried handguns. The main reason this
outbreak has become so widespread is the availability of guns. Some officials believe that
tougher gun laws, such as the Brady bill, are going to solve the problem, but what many
do not seem to realize is that kids aren’t getting guns legally. They are stealing them or in
many cases buying them on the black market. The number of illegal guns in circulation
has turned record numbers of everyday encounters into deadly ones.
Headlines change daily, but still chillingly report the same thing. In Washington
D.C. a fifteen year old is shot by his best friend. In New Haven, Connecticut, a fourteen
year ol...