According to the most recent statistics, 50 children are killed in the U.S. every week by gunfire (over 3,000 children a year). What can be done about child shooting deaths? In your view, how big a problem is the death of children by firearms in this country? What do you think is the primary cause of this problem?
Check out this site: http://www.neahin.org/programs/schoolsafety/gunsafety/statistics.htm
Thanks for your help.
Tracey Boswell
23 comments:
like seriously where are the parents? there is alot of childeren killings in the u.s and i think if the parents know that he or she is not living in a good town there child should not be going outside. i dont understand how theses little kids are getting gun downed but the parents are no were to be founded. i would always wanna know where my child is day, night, and every second. they would understand when they get older that i was only letting them keep there freedom as long as i could protect them. i think the government need to take a big stand in this postion becasue its the younger people that are doing the killings. and maybe the jail time is not doing nothing but making them bigger and bad.
ASHIA STEVENS
I think alot of shooting deaths with children are parents that are not responsible with educating children about guns in the home and making sure they are locked and out of reach of children. Most children are just curious as to what they are and end up killing themselves or other children. I think parents are reliable for those deaths. These days teens are carrying guns without parents even knowing this. They think that guns are made to kill, but guns are made to defend and save lives. We need to put stronger laws on guns, this may help younger teens from using them. Dawn Smith
Its all about how well the parents are keeping an eye on their children. If you live in a shitty neighborhood and your kid is outside playing then you need to be outside with them. thats the downfall about living in a bad neighborhood. Its not your fault its just there are extra steps you need to take for parenting then others, its not a bad thing, its just parents need to be aware of whats going on where they live. If you live in chicago then you better be with your kid at all times when going outside.
Kevin McBride
Are the children being targeted directly, or do they happen to get caught in the middle of an inccident? It is hard to believe that so many children are beign targeted a week and killed, not saying that it is not possible, it is just hard to figure out why someone would want to kill a child. To me, after seeing this statistic, killing a child with a firearm is a very big problem. Nobody should ever kill a child, no matter what the reason may be, killing an inicent child is a horrible thing to do. I think that one reason that people kill their children, or other children is because of drugs. Many times people are messed up on drugs and are so out of their mind that they snap and go crazy and do something that they shouldn't.
Kenneth East
Where the hell are children being shot? Obviously if there are gun fights children should be no where near that environment and children playing with weapons are simply the parents failure to lock things up. I'm sure this causes thousands of family pain but I'm very confused as to why children are being shot?
Matt Funk
In my opinion some areas are worse then others with shooting, and often they involve theft,power, and/or protection from an intruder. I feel that in order to make less deaths happen we need to make people feel less desperate. That means the safer people feel, and the less reasons they feel they need to use or own one the better for everyone, and the lower the death total will be. I think a rapper by the name of Coolio said it best in his song titled Gangsters paradise. "I am 23 now, but will i live to see 24 the way things are going I don't know"
In an area where having a gun means power and protection to see the next day. it's pretty obvious to me that we have problems that we need to address, the question is will we or are people going to turn a blinds eye like they normally do.
Cameron Smucker
parents need to keep a better eye on their children and if they have guns in the house they need to keep them locked up, especially if you live in a gang neighborhood because children are probably more likely to either use them or have them used against them when in a gang. its not just bad when children get shot, anyone getting shot is terrible but if you felt the need to have children you need to take care of them and protect them, youre being a bad parent if you dont know where your child is most of the time and they end up getting shot on your watch
There are so many evil people in this world, for someone to actually shot and kill a child is horrendous! As a parent I would never want my daughter to be near an area that could cause her any harm. Parents need to teach their children to be safe, stay away from strangers, don't go places by yourself, always let someone know where your going. Children need to grow up somewhere safe, DCFS needs to step in when a child is growing up in a home that isn't safe. Some people just aren't meant to be parents, even if they can reproduce. It's not the nicest thing to do, but it's for the child's safety. I know if I HAD to live someplace where there were shootings, I would not allow my daughter to continue living with me. Parents needs to step up and stop being selfish, start thinking about their child's safety, and get them out of that area!
Sarah Albin
THe problem i think is the parents. Theres to many killings of younger people. I don't why that is. Some problems could be that they aren't living in a good neighborhood. Its teaching the kids the wrong things. If there are to many shootings in that area i would take the kids to a new spot to where it isn't as bad or not bad at all so they don't have to see all the dealths of there friends, brothers, or sisters. I would want to know where my child is all day and i would make them come in at dark so i now there safe.
Aubrey Welch
I think it is a very big problem that so many children are being killed by gunfire. A lot of the killings are usually gang related and children end up getting caught in the crossfire. It use to be good enough to just keep an eye on your children and keep them close to the house, but now your child can be shot off their tricycle right in front of your house.
Obviously people don't care. If people cared more these days, kids or actually anyone wouldn't be getting hurt as much as they are. They should have more control over firearms and investigate the people who shoot the kids. They shouldn't be lenient on people who shoot children. They government should come up with some hard core punishment made just for child shooters. Even though the shooters are people too, i don't think they deserve anything good, at all. Them maybe people will open their eyes.
Samantha Odendaal
I assume most of the gun related deaths of children are from gang related neighborhood violence. As far as that is concerned I doubt there's a lot we can do about it. I believe that the only way to seriously reduce this kind of gun violence is to reduce gangs by educating children, and providing them a better future. To get rid of the gangs you need to deprive them of youth. To deprive them of youth you have to give the youth other places to be and other things to do. Education plays a big role in this. Education doesn't end at school, and in fact very little education is done in school. Children need to reinforce the lessons learned in school at home for them to stick. That involves parents taking time and effort with their kids. When these kids grow up, they can give back to the community and create more options for the next generation. This is obviously not a short term solution, but complicated problems rarely have simple solutions.
As for families who own firearms, I think that the parents should seriously consider getting rid of them when they start a family, or barring that, they need to keep the guns secure and educate their children on how dangerous the guns can be.
David Nadermann
I believe that there should be way stricter laws on owning guns and I believe that the punishment on owning an illegal gun should be stricter. If someone is caught with an illegal gun the normally only get 8 months in jail, and that’s just not enough time. If the police crackdown more on gun laws and less on people smoking pot or jay walking then the number of people killed a year by guns will go down.
Melody Nelligan
Gun control and new laws are not the answer to the problems of shootings and gun saftey. Check out those statistics carefully and you will find a large number of those shootings came from illegal firearms. Many of them in the hands of gangs where children are shooting children (teens considered children for statistics) and too often, they catch children in crossfire. After all, how many gangs require practice time at a shooting range for accuracy? Also involved is leaving firearms unattended or hidden in unsecured locations, often in the presence of children. Those firearms were illegally in the wrong hands of irresponsible people.
I agree with many of the responses already received. Where were the parents? Parents need to practice gun safety and teach it to their children. (Even if they don't plan to be around firearms, gun safety will help them (kids & parents) know what to do in the unexpected.) Parents also need to be aware of the environment they allow or put their children in.
With these questions also comes the issues involved with television, internet, video games... all of those places where kids see irresponsible gun play. Just like in the video games, children shoot expecting to restart the game if their character dies. Sometimes they have a hard time separating the simulation from the real thing.
Joann Logsdon
Children are so precious. A child being shot and killed is something that no parent ever wants to experience. Many times the child is and inocent by stander or even a child might find a gun in the home and may shoot another child or themselves in either case its sad. What could be done is a gun patrol for people who are not license to have a conceled weapon so that these fire arms will be off the streets. And have gun awareness programs for children to let them know that guns are not a toy, they can kill you and we don't want anything bad to happen to you.
S.Cooper
To be honest this is very sad. There is no way in the world that this many children should be gettin shot or killed. Either their parents need to take better care and pay close attention to what their children are doing, or im afraid this will continue. Something really should be done, and people really need to think of how carring a gun around isn't safe whether there are children around or not.
If the parents would be there to teach their kids right and wrong, maybe some of them wouldnt happen. I am sure that some of those deaths are from finding guns and playing with them, so they need to be locked. We nee dto teach our children about gun safety and how to handle them.
Cody
Well the thing about shooting related deaths is first you have to find the source. Was the gun just a home owners gun that was not locked up properly or was it a "gang" type situation? If it was a home owners weapon then as a firearm carrier you should teach you children how to safely handle the weapon and that it is a self defense item not to be used for an offensive attack. It is also a rifle and shotgun are for sport or hunting. The hard thing about children being killed is that because they are curious or on the rebellious thing they tend to be in places they should not be and in a mind frame that can ,but not always are, of hurting someone else to get what they want. I think it is a problem but I myself don't know what to do to fix it. I would say find the source of all the killings is it in the cities or small towns? Once you know where they are happening find out why. Once you know why try to find a way to solve it.
There is a major problem with chidren deaths by firearms. There should be more programs out here for children to participate in. I think parents should take most of the blame. Parents need to be more invovled with their children, instead of into themselves. They should talk to their children to see what is going on their life. Get involved in activties with their children. There are alot of parents that need to go up also.Now-a-days, the homes lack of discipline. Kids tell the parents what to do. Children are allowed to disrepect adult and one another. I think it boils down to morals and how a child is raise. These kids have to much handed to them, instead of making them work for it.
Brittany Williams
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