USA: Protect Children, Not Guns

Submitted by crinadmin on

According to the most recent data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 3,006 children and teens were killed by firearms in the USA 2005, the first increase since 1994 and the first rise in gun deaths since Congress allowed the Assault Weapons Ban to expire in 2004.

When 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech and five at Northern Illinois University, the public was outraged. Yet every four days we have the equivalent of a Virginia Tech tragedy that passes unnoticed. The US gun violence epidemic robs children's lives wastes human potential, and drains resources from the health care system.

What is it going to take to stop this senseless loss of young lives? need to ensure that those we elect to public office enact legislation that will really protect children by limiting the number of guns in communities, controlling who can obtain firearms and the conditions of their use. Individuals and communities must act to end the culture of violence that desensitises people, young and old, to the value of life.

  • The number of children and teens in America killed by guns in 2005 would fill 120 public school classrooms of 25 students each.
  • In 2005, 69 preschoolers were killed by firearms compared to 53 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
  • Since 1979, gun violence has snuffed out the lives of 104,419 children and teens in America.
  • The number of Afro-American children and teens killed by gunfire since 1979 is more than 10 times the number of Afro-American citizens of all ages lynched in American history.
  • The number of children and teens killed by guns since 1979 would fill 4,177 public school classrooms of 25 students each.

 

 

pdf: http://www.crin.org/docs/Gun_report_2008.pdf

Organisation: 
Children's Defence Fund
Attachment Link: 
http://www.crin.org/docs/Gun_report_2008.pdf

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