Reducing Youth Gun Violence:.
An Overview of Programs and Initiatives 

Program Summary

Shay Bilchik, Administrator
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention

May 1996

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice
Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice
Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the
National Institute of Justice, and the Office for
Victims of Crime.

------------------------------

Foreword

Gun violence in the United States has become an
epidemic. From the Civil War to the present,
567,000 Americans have died in combat; but since
1920, over 1 million American civilians have been
killed by firearms (Pacific Center, 1994). Among
teenagers 15 to 19 years old, the problem of gun
violence is particularly alarming: one of every
four deaths is attributable to a firearm injury.
What is causing this epidemic of violence, and how
can we stop it?

To better focus U.S. Attorneys' violence prevention
efforts and help States and jurisdictions respond
more effectively to this national crisis, the
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention (OJJDP) has developed this report. The
first of two reports assessing innovative and
effective violence prevention programs across the
country, Reducing Youth Gun Violence discusses a
wide array of strategies -- from school-based
prevention to gun market interception. Relevant
research, evaluation, and legislation are included
to ground these programs and to provide readers a
context for their successful implementation. 

Reducing Youth Gun Violence is divided into four
sections: an executive summary, a directory of
youth gun violence reduction programs, a directory
of youth gun violence prevention organizations, and
a bibliography of research, evaluation, and
publications on youth and guns. A description of
each section follows.

I. Executive Summary 

To encourage communities plagued by youth gun
violence to adopt effective and proven prevention
strategies and to spur better collaboration between
government agencies and community organizations,
Section I: 

o Describes state-of-the-art approaches to youth
gun violence prevention and intervention.

o Reviews the status of prevention programs across
the country and makes recommendations on how they
can be more effective. 

o Suggests Federal and local partnerships to
implement youth gun laws and programs.

o Summarizes current Federal and State legislation
to reduce youth gun violence and references
extensive documentation on this subject by the
National Criminal Justice Association. 

o Assesses promising research on the incidence and
context of youth gun violence, as well as potential
solutions, from the fields of public health,
criminology, and sociology. 

o Discusses important new findings on youth
violence from OJJDP and the National Institute of
Justice that will expand our understanding of youth
violence and its consequences. 
 
II. Directory of Youth Gun Violence Reduction
Programs

Section II lists currently operating programs,
contact information, program descriptions, and,
when available, program evaluations. Readers are
encouraged to use this directory to assess the
state of the art in reducing youth gun violence,
examine in detail programs being implemented in
specific States or local communities of interest,
and contact individuals to share information with
those in need of support, resources, and program
guidance.

III. Directory of Youth Gun Violence Prevention
Organizations

Section III lists organizations working to get guns
out of the hands of young people, contact
information, and descriptions of current
activities. The directory includes names of
individuals who can provide advice, resources, or
additional contacts to readers interested in
establishing or expanding youth gun violence
prevention programs in their communities.

IV. Bibliography of Research, Evaluation, and
Publications on Youth and Guns 

Section IV summarizes abstracts of research on guns
and youth. The research discussed here is an
important resource for expanding public policy,
developing public information campaigns, and
informing other initiatives in the area of youth
gun violence. 

Reducing Youth Gun Violence synthesizes work from a
wide range of sources representing law enforcement,
public health, academia, and youth service
providers. It was compiled by OJJDP staff. 

Contributors included the National Institute of
Justice, United States Attorneys, Partnerships
Against Violence: Promising Programs (PAVNET),
Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, Center for the
Study and Prevention of Violence, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Developmental
Research and Program, Inc., Educational Development
Center, Inc., International Association of Chiefs
of Police, Joyce Foundation, National Association
of State Boards of Education, National Criminal
Justice Association, National Governors'
Association, National School Boards Association,
National School Safety Center, Pacific Center for
Violence Prevention, Violence Policy Center, and
many others. 

This report incorporates written documentation
(status reports, research, newsletters, and other
written materials) from organizations listed in
Sections II and III, and, through followup
interviews with program directors and staff,
researchers, practitioners, and other experts,
attempts to present the most current and complete
information available in the United States on
reducing youth gun violence. It is the first phase
of a broader OJJDP project to collect and
disseminate descriptions and evaluations of the
Nation's most promising youth gun violence
reduction programs.

Reducing Youth Gun Violence is a broad look at
youth gun violence prevention in the United States.
Many of the programs it discusses have not been
evaluated; others are narrow in scope or just
beginning to operate. Yet all of the programs
reviewed here clearly point States and
jurisdictions in the right direction. The report is
designed to give readers the ability to identify
programs best suited to the needs of their target
areas.

OJJDP's second report on youth and guns will
present guidance on implementing model youth gun
violence reduction programs. It will highlight
feedback from U.S. Attorneys and others, site
visits to selected programs, and a survey of State
youth program coordinators conducted by the
International Association of Chiefs of Police. 

I want to thank the staff of OJJDP, the Offices and
Bureaus of the Office of Justice Programs, the U.S.
Attorneys, and the significant number of staff from
other U.S. Department of Justice components who
contributed to the development of this document. A
special commendation is extended to Sarah
Ingersoll, Special Assistant, OJJDP, and primary
author of Reducing Youth Gun Violence, for her
outstanding work on this publication.

Shay Bilchik
Administrator
Office of Juvenile Justice 
 and Delinquency Prevention

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Table of Contents

Foreword

I. Executive Summary
   Youth Gun Legislation
   Youth Gun Research
    The Incidence and Prevalence of Youth Gun
     Violence
    Youth Gun Violence and Preventive Solutions and
     Interventions
    The Context of Youth Gun Violence
    Analysis of Increased Youth Gun Violence
    Preventive Solutions
    Interventions
    Further Research
   Technological and Environmental Interventions
   The Role of Federal Law Enforcement
   Prevention and Intervention Programs
   Focus on Prevention 
    Curriculums
    Trauma Prevention
    Gun Buy-Back Programs
    Public Education Campaigns
   Focus on Intervention 
    Community Law Enforcement
    Gun Market Disruption and Interception
    Diversion and Treatment Programs
    Gun Courts
    Alternative Schools
   Comprehensive Initiatives
    Summary of Comprehensive Initiatives
   Conclusion

II. Directory of Youth Gun Violence Reduction
Programs 

III. Directory of Youth Gun Violence Prevention
Organizations 

IV. Bibliography of Research, Evaluation, and
Publications on Youth and Guns 

------------------------------

I. Executive Summary

The Nation's juvenile justice system is at a
crossroads. We face a disturbing increase in
violent crimes committed by American juveniles, and
an alarming rise in abuse, neglect, and gun
violence perpetuated against this country's youth.
In light of this emerging crisis and its
complexity, we can no longer afford to focus
narrowly on individual disciplines. To seriously
address the rising levels of juvenile crime across
the United States, especially youth gun violence,
all members of the community, including specialists
in relevant policy and academic areas, must
participate. Reducing violence and building
healthier and safer communities requires planning
that is collaborative and comprehensive.
Collectively, we must launch a two-pronged assault
on juvenile delinquency and youth gun violence.
Both a commitment to prevention and early
intervention and a strong focus on law enforcement
and a comprehensive system of graduated sanctions
are crucial to this battle.

A number of programs to reduce young people's
access to and dangerous use of guns have been
initiated by individuals and organizations across
the country that others should support and emulate.
These interventions fall into seven categories: (1)
legislation, (2) research, (3) technological and
environmental changes, (4) Federal law enforcement,
(5) prevention programs, (6) intervention programs,
and (7) comprehensive initiatives. 

Youth Gun Legislation

Legal measures that limit access to firearms strive
to reduce the number and type of people eligible to
own or possess firearms, as well as the types of
firearms that can be manufactured, owned, and
carried. Gun violence reduction legislation
addresses both firearm availability and societal
norms to reduce crime and violence.

Recent Federal legislation makes a strong statement
that guns in the hands of young people will not be
tolerated and represents a critical step toward
making our schools and neighborhoods safer:

o The Youth Handgun Safety Act (Title XI, Subtitle
B), passed in August 1994 as part of the Omnibus
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act,
prohibits the possession of a handgun or ammunition
by a juvenile, or the private transfer of a handgun
or ammunition to a juvenile. The law includes a
number of exceptions, such as possessing a firearm
for farming, hunting, and other specified uses. 

o The Gun-Free Schools Act took effect on March 31,
1994, amending the current Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 (20 USC 2701 et seq.).
It stipulates that any local educational agencies
(LEA) receiving ESEA assistance must have a policy
requiring the expulsion -- for a period of not less
than 1 year -- of any student who brings a firearm
to school. The LEA's chief administering officer,
however, may modify the expulsion requirement on a
case-by-case basis.

o A second Gun-Free Schools Act, enacted in October
1994, requires LEA's to implement a policy of
"referral to the criminal justice or juvenile
delinquency system of any student who brings a
firearm or weapon to a school served by such
agency."

Although this legislation is enacted by the Federal
Government, it is State and local law enforcement
officials who can deal most effectively with
juvenile gun violations. The role of the Federal
Government is to support State and local efforts in
doing so. Indeed, in approximately half of the
States, statutes exist that are at least as
stringent as the Youth Handgun Safety Act. 

The National Criminal Justice Association, under a
grant from OJJDP and the Bureau of Justice
Assistance (BJA), has produced a guide, Compilation
of State Firearm Codes That Affect Juveniles, that
contains most State firearm code provisions that
might be applied to juveniles relating to the
ownership, purchase, receipt, handling, carrying,
and holding of firearms. The guide reported that
all 50 States and the District of Columbia have
prohibitions or restrictions on juveniles'
possession and use of firearms or handguns. It also
reported the percentage of States that have codes
affecting juveniles relevant to each of the
following areas: possession of a firearm (75
percent), possession of particular types of
firearms (90 percent), parental consent (at least
50 percent), safety training (10 percent), special
prohibitions relating to adjudicated delinquents
(more than 20 percent), juveniles addicted to
alcohol or drugs (more than 33 percent) or
committed to mental institutions (35 percent),
firearms in schools (more than 67 percent), waivers
to criminal court (18 percent), and detention (2
percent). It also describes juvenile firearm-
related provisions enacted by State legislatures in
1994.

Even though reducing youth gun violence is a
Federal priority, the battle to stop violence by
and against juveniles must be fought at the State
and local levels. Federal agencies can be most
effective by providing support to States and
communities, particularly by disseminating sound
information gathered nationally on effective
approaches to intervention, rehabilitation, and
prevention. 

Youth Gun Research

The extensive research on youth gun violence that
has been conducted by criminologists, public health
researchers, and sociologists should guide all
State or local prevention or intervention
initiatives. Research on gun deaths affecting both
adult and child populations is extensive.
Literature focusing exclusively on guns and youth
overlaps with the broader body of gun literature,
but is even more extensive in the areas of
incidence and prevalence of gun deaths. 

The Incidence and Prevalence of Youth Gun Violence

Most studies of youth and guns focus on homicide,
suicide, or accidental death by firearms. Briefly
stated, this research shows increasing numbers of
homicides and deaths by firearms, especially among
the population of young African-American males.

Suicides. A total of 1,899 youth ages 15 to 19
committed suicide in 1991, a rate of 11 per 100,000
youth in this age group. Between 1979 and 1991, the
rate of suicide among youth this age increased 31
percent and in 1989, among those suicides 6 out of
10 were committed with firearms (Allen-Hagen,
Sickmund, and Snyder, 1994). Research has also
found that the presence of firearms in the home is
associated with increased risk of adolescent
suicides (Brent, Perper, and Allman, 1987).

Murder rates. Homicide rates for youth 18 and under
have more than doubled between 1985 and 1992, while
there has been no recent growth in homicide rates
for adults 24 and older. Following a period of
relative stability from 1970 to 1985, the rate of
murder committed by young people (ages 15 to 22)
increased sharply. It is estimated that for this
age group 18,600 murders were committed from 1986
to 1992, or 12.1 percent of the annual average of
22,000 murders reported in those years. In one year
alone (1991), this age group generated an excess of
5,330 murders, or 21.6 percent of the 24,703
murders reported in the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's (FBI's) 1991 Uniform Crime Report.
The murder rate for 16-year-olds, for example,
which, prior to 1985, was consistently about half
that of all other age groups, increased 138 percent
from 1985 to 1992. Even the murder rate for 13- to
14-year-olds, which is still low enough to not be a
significant contributor to the total murder rate,
doubled between 1985 and 1992 (Blumstein, 1994).

Homicides with guns. The number of homicides
juveniles commit each year with guns has more than
doubled between 1985 and 1992, while there has been
no change in nongun homicides. From 1976 to 1985,
the number of homicides committed by juveniles
involving a gun remained steady at 59 percent; the
other 41 percent involved some other form of
weapon. Beginning in 1985, and especially in 1988,
there was a steady growth in the use of guns by
juveniles, with no corresponding upward trend in
nongun homicides (Blumstein, 1994). 

Homicide victims. For victims over age 30, the
percentage killed by guns declined a small but
statistically significant amount from 1976 to 1991.
But for victims 15 to 19 years old, that rate rose
from an average of 63 percent from 1976 to 1984, to
a level of 85 percent in 1992. For younger victims,
the homicide rate has risen even higher, from 49
percent to 72 percent. More than 70 percent of
these teenage victims were shot to death
(Blumstein, 1994). From 1979 to 1989, firearm
homicide rates were highest for black males and
lowest for white females in all five urban
populations studied (Fingerhut et al. 1992b).
Teenage boys in all racial and ethnic groups are
more likely to die from gunshot wounds than from
all natural causes combined (Jones and Krisberg,
1994).

This report, however, does not emphasize the body
of literature on the incidence and prevalence of
gun death and murder rates among children and
youth, but rather highlights the much smaller body
of literature on this epidemic's context, analysis,
and potential solutions. The research cited here
relies less on traditional crime study sources such
as police reports; it instead uses sources more
relevant to youth, including opinion polls, self-
reported surveys, epidemiological analysis, and
criminological research.

Youth Gun Violence and Preventive Solutions and
Interventions 

Research on the contexts that lead to youth
involvement with guns, analysis of the reasons for
youth involvement with guns, and preventive
solutions and interventions to this problem are
much more sparse than the literature on the
incidence of gun violence. It is in these areas,
however, that researchers have found the most
useful information relating to policies and methods
for reducing youth gun violence.

The Context of Youth Gun Violence 

Research on the context of youth gun violence
provides information beyond the numbers of deaths.
It indicates the circumstances and broader
significance surrounding the incidence of youth gun
violence, including young people's access to and
use of guns; the role of drugs and drug dealing;
the importance of gun dealers and types of guns;
the level of youth gun deaths associated with
domestic arguments, suicide, and accidents rather
than criminal behavior; and the effect of young
people's social maladjustment or lack of training
in proper gun handling. In general, the context of
youth gun violence explains many interrelated
factors that must be addressed in an intelligent
approach to this crisis. 

Access. Increased availability of guns makes youth
violence more lethal (American Psychological
Association, 1993; Elliott, 1994; Jones and
Krisberg, 1994; McDowall, 1991). A trend analysis
of juveniles committing homicide shows that since
the mid-1970's the number of homicides in which no
firearm was involved has remained fairly constant.
However, homicides by juveniles involving a firearm
have increased nearly threefold. In addition,
during this same period the number of juvenile
arrests for weapons violations increased 117
percent.

o In a 1992 study documenting self-reported handgun
access and ownership in Seattle, Washington, 34
percent of students reported easy access to
handguns (47 percent of males and 22 percent of
females), and 6.4 percent reported owning a handgun
(Callahan and Rivera, 1992). 

o A 1993 national study by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that 21
percent of New York City public high school
students reported carrying a weapon, such as a gun,
knife, or club (7 percent identified a handgun),
within a 30-day period. 

o The ongoing Rochester Youth Development Study
found that 10 percent of 9th- and 10th-grade boys
in Rochester public schools owned a firearm and
that 7.5 percent carried them regularly (Lizotte et
al., 1994).

o A 1993 national opinion poll of youth in grades 6
to 12 showed that 59 percent of the 2,508 children
surveyed said they could "get a handgun if they
wanted"; 35 percent maintained that it would take
less than an hour to acquire a firearm; and 15
percent reported carrying a handgun in the last
month (Louis Harris, 1993).

o A 1993 study of seventh-grade males in an inner-
city high school found that 48 percent carried
knives and 23 percent carried guns. Among eighth-
grade males, 45 percent carried knives regularly
and 40 percent frequently carried a gun (Webster et
al., 1993).

Use and lethality. Although guns are more available
today, youth also now show an increasing tendency
to use them to settle disputes. When youth who are
already predisposed to violence have easy access to
guns, they may be more likely to become violent
(American Psychological Association, 1993). Low
prices (Pacific Center, 1994) and technological
innovations in firearm and ammunition manufacturing
(Jones and Krisberg, 1994) have further increased
the lethality of youth gun violence. Despite
advances in the medical field, the invention of
rapid-fire assault weapons and bullets designed to
explode within the human target is always one step
ahead, making death a more likely outcome of
shootings.

Drugs and firearms. Goldstein (in Blumstein, 1994)
indicates three ways drugs and crime are connected:
(1) pharmacological/psychological consequences, in
which drugs are linked directly to violent
activity, (2) economic/compulsive crimes, or crimes
committed by drug users to support their habit, and
(3) systemic crimes, or crimes committed regularly
as part of doing business in the drug industry.
With respect to the pharmacological effect of
drugs, it is estimated that drugs, and most
commonly alcohol, are a factor in a significant
number of firearm-related deaths (Pacific Center,
1994). However, given the relative decline in the
past few years of illegal drug use among young
people, particularly African-American youth, the
extent of economic and compulsive crimes related to
sustaining drug habits within this population is
likely to be less significant. With respect to
systemic drug crime, on the other hand, it is clear
that firearms are more prevalent around illicit
drugs (American Psychological Association, 1993)
and that this is particularly true for young
people. A longitudinal study of 1,500 Pittsburgh
male youth showed that the frequency of carrying a
concealed weapon increased in the year concurrent
with the initiation of drug selling. Among drug
sellers, the rates for gun use steadily increased
while the rates for other weapons decreased. This
relationship was even more significant among drug
sellers who sold hard drugs such as heroin,
cocaine, and LSD (Van Kammen and Loeber, 1994).

Crack cocaine. On the basis of drug arrest rates
and other data, Blumstein (1994) hypothesizes that
the increase in the recruitment of juveniles,
primarily nonwhites, into the drug markets began
with the introduction of crack cocaine to the inner
cities. In addition to crack cocaine's
addictiveness, there are a number of reasons why
youth, especially nonwhite youth, may have been
brought into the crack drug market. According to
police, their recent "war on drugs" has focused on
nonwhites much more than whites because black drug
sellers tend to sell in the street, whereas white
sellers are much more likely to operate indoors. As
a result, black drug dealers are more vulnerable to
arrest and more inclined to recruit young people,
who are less vulnerable to punishments imposed by
the adult criminal justice system. In addition,
young people work more cheaply than adults, tend to
be more daring and willing to take risks, and may
see no other comparable satisfactory route to
economic sustenance. These factors are undoubtedly
enhanced by young people's pessimism as they weigh
their opportunities in the legitimate economy,
which increasingly demands that workers be highly
skilled to gain entry. This economic reality makes
youth in low-income neighborhoods particularly
amenable to recruitment by drug dealers. It also
makes them more likely, as with all participants in
the illicit drug industry, to carry guns for self-
protection. These hypotheses are consistent with
aggregate national data showing that with the
introduction of crack cocaine youth gun homicides
increased rapidly at different times in different
cities, particularly in New York City and Los
Angeles, and later in Washington, D.C. (Blumstein,
1994).

Criminal behavior, arguments, suicide, accidents,
and gun deaths. Though often portrayed as a
consequence of criminal activity, firearm deaths
occur more often as a result of violent arguments
than as a result of robberies, fights, and rapes
combined (Pacific Center, 1994). One study in King
County, Washington, found that guns kept at home
were involved in the death of a household member 18
times more often than in the death of a stranger.
These deaths included suicides, homicides, and
unintentional fatal shootings (Kellermann, 1993). 

Obtaining guns from gun dealers. Duker's report on
gun dealers (1994) looked at the relationship
between gun use among juveniles and State-, county-,              
and city-licensed gun dealers. Areas of research
included: (1) where adolescents who carry and use
guns get those guns, (2) the number of gun dealers
youth are aware of in their city, county, or State,
(3) detailed information on the names and addresses
of gun dealers and stores youth may use to obtain
firearms in their city, county, or State, and (4)
laws, regulations, and preemptions relating to gun
dealers. This report also provides State-by-State
data on the geographical distribution,
concentration, and regulation of gun dealers.

Maladjusted youth. Handguns are more likely to be
owned by socially maladjusted youth, dropouts, drug
dealers, and individuals with a prior record of
violent behavior than by more socially adjusted
youth, even in those sections of the country in
which firearms and hunting are fairly common
(American Psychological Association, 1993; Elliott,
1994; Huizinga, 1994; Lizotte et al. 1994). In a
study by Webster et al. (1993), gun carrying among
seventh and eighth graders at an inner-city school
was associated with having been arrested, knowing
victims of violence, starting fights, and being
willing to justify shooting someone. Illegal guns,
in particular, are more likely to be owned by
delinquents or drug users. For example, 74 percent
of illegal gun owners commit street crimes, 24
percent commit gun crimes, and 41 percent use drugs
(Huizinga, 1994).

Types of guns. In one study of serious juvenile
offenders and students from high-risk areas in four
States, the firearms of choice were high-quality,
powerful revolvers, followed closely by automatic
and semiautomatic handguns, and shotguns (Sheley
and Wright, 1993).

Gun socialization. According to one researcher, gun
ownership by adults and the introduction of their
children into recreational gun culture appears to
reduce problems associated with teenage violence
(Blackman, 1994). Research by Huizinga (1994) and
Lizotte et al. (1994) also shows that for legal gun
owners, socialization appears to take place in the
family. For illegal gun owners, however,
socialization comes from peer influences "on the
street."

Analysis of Increased Youth Gun Violence

The following hypotheses and explanations on the
increase in youth gun violence have been posited in
research literature. They are based on the previous
section's examination of the context of youth gun
violence.

A cycle of fear. To the taxonomy of drug/crime
connections described earlier, Blumstein (1994)
adds a fourth way in which drugs and gun violence
are related: the community disorganization effect
of the drug industry. The community disorganization
theory explores the influence of the prevalence of
guns among drug sellers as a stimulus to others in
the community to arm themselves for self-defense,
to settle disputes that have nothing to do with
drugs, or just to gain respect. Blumstein posits a
"diffusion" hypothesis to explain the increase in
firearm homicides among youth. He suggests that as
juveniles become involved in the drug trade, they
acquire guns to protect themselves. In turn, other
young people obtain guns to protect themselves from
these drug-involved, gun-carrying juveniles.
Disputes that previously would have ended in fist
fights now have the potential to lead to shootings.
Elliott's research on the increased lethality of
youth violence (1994), Fagan's forthcoming research
on the "ecology of danger," and the Louis Harris
poll (1993) showing that 35 percent of children
ages 6 to 12 fear their lives will be cut short by
gun violence, support Blumstein's hypothesis. 

Lack of opportunity. Blumstein (1994) and Pacific
Center (1994) further hypothesize that high levels
of poverty, high rates of single-parent households,
educational failures, and a widespread sense of
economic hopelessness exacerbate the diffusion
phenomenon and increase the use of guns by young
people. 

Culture of machismo and violence. Fagan
(forthcoming) suggests that, in addition to the
environment of fear in which young people live,
youth violence is affected by cultural dynamics
related to the illicit gun trade that has
popularized guns and made "backing down" from
arguments and "losing face" difficult for young
people. Elliott's (1994) and Anderson's (1994) work
also indicates that an element of showing off and
ensuring respect and acquiescence from others is a
method of self-defense that contributes to youth
gun violence. In addition to the drug trade,
criminogenic neighborhoods and media violence are
also factors contributing to the use of guns by
young people (Pacific Center, 1994). 

Shapiro et al. (undated) pinpoints grades five and
six as a particularly "gun-prone" time and suggests
that youth, responding aggressively to shame,
finding guns exciting, feeling comfortable with
aggression, and believing that guns bring power and
safety, are most likely to engage in gun violence.

Lack of faith in law enforcement. Elliott (1994)
suggests that youth violence may be a response to
the perception among many violence-prone youth that
public authorities cannot protect them or maintain
order in their neighborhoods.

Youth perspective. The dramatic increase in murders
by the very young raises concerns that a "greater
recklessness" may be associated with teenagers than
with adults. Guns in the hands of young people can
engender fear that young people are less likely to
exercise the necessary restraint in handling
dangerous weapons, especially rapid-fire assault
weapons (Blumstein, 1994). Young people often have
an underdeveloped sense of the value of life, their
own as well as others. They may not have the
ability to understand how one seemingly isolated
act can in turn impact an entire community. This
developmental issue, when combined with access to
guns and the other factors described above, may
contribute to youth gun violence (Pacific Center,
1994).

Preventive Solutions

With a fuller understanding of the factors
contributing to youth gun violence, it is possible
to identify ways to confront this national crisis.
The following types of prevention activities
address problem areas early on in the lives of
violence-prone children, and must be included in
any truly comprehensive strategy to reduce youth
gun violence in the United States.

Preventive services. Identifying children at risk
and referring them to appropriate services are
important first steps to reducing youth gun
violence (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1992;
Blumstein, 1994). These services should include
teaching parenting skills and teaching children how
to manage their anger nonviolently (Henkoff, 1992).
Violence-prone attitudes seem to increase between
grades five and six and then stabilize. Prevention
programs that identify, address, and change
attitudes, motives, and beliefs that contribute to
violent behavior should be initiated at such ages
(Shapiro et al., 1993). Programs for at-risk youth
should focus on changing individual behavior and
decision-making processes, and they should address
alternative ways to express cultural pride and
strength (Fagan, forthcoming).

Working with witnesses to violence. It is important
to offer young perpetrators, victims, and witnesses
of violence adequate psychological health services
(American Psychological Association, 1993; Collison
et al., 1987). A survey of 582 Cook County,
Illinois, Department of Corrections detainees found
that 51 percent had previously entered hospitals
for violence-related injuries, and that 26 percent
had at one time survived gunshot wounds. Those with
prior firearm injuries shared other violence-
related factors such as witnessing a shooting at an
early age and having easy access to a semiautomatic
weapon (1995).

Public education. To encourage and support
nonviolent attitudes and behavior among youth,
long-term public and family education programs and
gun safety curriculums in school must be included
in violence reduction strategies (American Academy
of Pediatrics, 1992; CDC, 1991; Christoffel, 1991;
Fingerhut et al.,1991; Sugarmann and Rand, 1994;
Treanor and Bijlefeld, 1989). Involving youth
(Treanor and Bijlefeld, 1989) and developing
community consensus on the use and possession of
weapons are particularly important to developing an
effective public education process (Fingerhut et
al., 1991).

Reducing fear. Because the fear of assault is often
claimed as the reason for carrying a firearm,
programs should be implemented that address the
risk of victimization, improve school climate,
create safe havens, and foster a safe community
environment (CDC, 1991; Fagan, forthcoming;
Kennedy, 1994; Sheley and Wright, 1993). According
to Sheley and Wright, "the fundamental policy
problem involves convincing youths that they can
survive in their neighborhoods without being armed"
(1993). Accomplishing this public policy goal means
reducing both perceived environmental dangers and
reducing actual opportunities for weapon-associated
violence (Fingerhut et al., 1991).

Making guns safer. Safer gun design, regulation,
product liability, increased sales tax, firearm
registration and licensure, background checks, and
ammunition modification are ways to regulate the
dangers of guns (American Academy of Pediatrics,
1989; Christoffel, 1991; Sugarmann and Rand, 1994).

Reducing availability and stricter regulation.
Nationwide, domestic manufacturing and foreign
importation of handguns reached an all-time high in
1992 (Pacific Center, 1994). Stricter legislation
and bans on assault weapons and handguns are
approaches unanimously suggested by the research as
ways to limit the accessibility of guns to youth
(American Academy of Pediatrics, 1989; American
Psychological Association, 1993; Christoffel, 1991;
Fingerhut et al., 1991; Henkoff, 1992; Kennedy,
1994; Lawyers Committee, 1994; Pacific Center,
1994; Smith and Lautman, 1990). The National Rifle
Association (NRA) favors regulations on access to
and misuse of firearms by minors, particularly at
the State level, as long as these regulations do
not impinge on adults' rights (Blackman, 1994). 

A review of preliminary evaluations of the
effectiveness of local gun laws and policies
(Brewer et al., 1994) showed that mandatory
sentencing laws for felonies involving firearms
show promise in preventing gun-related violent
crime. Research indicates that restrictive handgun
laws may also be effective (Elliott, 1994; Lofton
et al., 1991). Other types of laws have not been
evaluated adequately to permit classification as
either effective or ineffective. 

Enforcing laws. The Brewer et al. review of
prevention strategies (1994) suggests that
enforcement of laws may be a key to reducing
violent juvenile acts. The Lawyers Committee on
Violence, a consortium of legal advocates, also
espouses such a strategy (1994). 

Drug treatment and prevention. Additional
investments in drug treatment and reducing juvenile
alcohol and drug use are also effective prevention
strategies (American Psychological Association,
1993; Blumstein, 1994). Reducing the illicit drug
trade would reduce drug-related violence as well as
drug-induced violence. In addition, as Van Kammen
and Loeber's (1994) research shows, a reduction in
juvenile drug dealing would likely reduce their
need to carry concealed weapons, particularly guns.

Improving opportunities. Strategies that address
structural problems in the family, community, and
society should complement any intervention focused
on individual perpetrators. The culture of violence
and lack of opportunity in inner cities, in
particular, should be addressed (Ruttenberg, 1994;
Sheley and Wright, 1993).

Interventions 

Whereas preventive approaches seek to minimize
factors associated with youth gun violence,
interventions are needed for young people already
engaged in high-risk activities.

Getting guns out of the hands of kids. To reduce
the environment of fear in which violence-prone
children live, and to achieve the greatest
reduction in the number of weapon-carrying youth,
research suggests that efforts be directed at youth
who frequently carry weapons (Blumstein, 1994; CDC,
1991). This approach must be designed carefully to
respect young people's civil liberties (Northrop
and Hamrick, 1990). Kennedy (1994) suggests that
youth gun reduction and fear reduction should
reinforce one another. He advocates a "market
disruption" approach such as that used to fight
street drug markets. By using community allies to
report new dealing sites, making buyers feel
vulnerable by publicizing reverse sting operations
in which police pose as dealers and arrest buyers,
and interfering with business by loitering around
dealer sites, police have been successful in
reducing drug trafficking in communities. Community
support is critical for such an operation to be
effective. A recent NIJ-sponsored evaluation of the
Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department's "Weed
and Seed" initiative found that the program's
success in getting guns off the street in one
neighborhood reduced gun crimes there by almost 50
percent during a 6-month period. Significantly, the
decline in gun use and crime in the target area did
not appear to cause a displacement of crime to
adjoining neighborhoods. 

Reducing the supply of guns. The Lawyers Committee
on Violence, on the other hand, proposes that legal
burdens associated with gun violence fall not only
on those who use guns to commit crimes, but also on
gun owners, sellers and suppliers, and
manufacturers, as well as the parents of the
perpetrator if he or she is a minor.

Reporting and detection. The National School Safety
Center found that one of the most effective
interventions encouraged students to report weapon-
carrying classmates to teachers or administrators
(Butterfield and Turner, 1989). They also suggest
the use of metal detectors, unannounced sweeps, and
searches of lockers (Butterfield and Turner, 1989;
Lawyers Committee, 1994).

Using a broad coalition of advocates and experts.
In almost every piece of literature addressing
youth gun violence, the authors agree that the
activities suggested above should be accomplished
by a broad coalition of concerned individuals and
organizations (Advocacy Institute, 1994; American
Academy of Pediatrics, 1989; American Psychological
Association, 1993; Becker, Olson, and Vick, 1993;
May, 1995; Price et al., 1991; Smith and Lautman,
1990; Sugarman and Rand, 1994; Treanor and
Bijlefeld, 1989). Crime control professionals,
public health and health professionals, victim's
families, educators, lawmakers, criminologists, gun
control groups, community-based organizations,
community members, the armed services, the Federal
Communications Commission, and the U.S. Civil
Rights Commission can all advocate and help save
our youth from gun violence. Effective strategies
include young people and disinvested people and
provide legitimate activities and opportunities for
them (Blumstein, 1994).

Further Research

Experts in the field of youth gun violence have
posited that further research in the following
areas would help ground future youth firearms
policy and practice:

o The magnitude, characteristics, and cost of
morbidity and disability caused by firearms and
other weapons (Northrop and Hamrick, 1990;
Sugarmann and Rand, 1994; Zimring, 1993).

o The number, type, and distribution of firearms
and other weapons in the United States (Northrop
and Hamrick, 1990).

o The reasons young people carry guns (American
Psychological Association, 1993).

o The role violent gangs play in increased urban
violence. It is unclear if the growth in urban
violence is due to gangs, other law-violating
groups of youth, or nongang youth (Howell, 1994).

o Epidemiological studies on the precursors and
correlates of firearm deaths and nonfatal firearm
assaults (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1992;
Northrop and Hamrick, 1990; Pacific Center, 1994).

o The effectiveness of gun control policies
(Elliott, 1994; Northrop and Hamrick, 1990;
Zimring, 1993).

NIJ is currently taking steps to address these
research gaps. Ongoing and recently funded studies
in NIJ's Office of Criminal Justice Research
include the following:

o A national survey of private firearms ownership
and use. 

o A study of firearms prevalence in and around
urban, suburban, and rural high schools.

o A study applying the principles of problem-
oriented policing to the interruption of illicit
youth gun markets in Boston and Washington, D.C.,
combining prevention strategies with policing
strategies used against illegal drug markets.

o Research in conjunction with OJJDP and CDC
evaluating the effectiveness of a comprehensive
strategy to reduce juvenile gun violence in the
Atlanta metropolitan region.

o A study of youth violence, guns, and links to
illicit drug markets. 

OJJDP is funding ongoing and new research that
addresses different aspects of the gun problem,
including the following:

o An examination of the interrelationship of guns,
violence, drugs, and gangs in Rochester,
Pittsburgh, and Denver by OJJDP's Program of
Research on the Causes and Correlates of
Delinquency.

o Studies of youth violence trends and
characteristics in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, the
District of Columbia, and South Carolina. These
studies focus specifically on homicides and the use
of firearms.

o Research on juvenile gang involvement, including
information on gang members who are homicide
perpetrators. A national assessment of the scope
and seriousness of gang violence will also be
conducted.

Technological and Environmental Interventions

Although technological changes are not the subject
of this document, it should be noted that they are
an important approach to reducing youth gun
violence and the extensive use of guns against
their owners. Firearm design requirements are both
a technological and a legal intervention. Firearm
standards that have been proposed include designing
guns to be less concealable; producing guns with
trigger safeties, fingerprint identification, and
loading indicators; and regulating the appearance
of toy guns and handguns made of plastic.
Ammunition design is also being explored because
bullet shape, consistency, and composition
determine the severity of a gunshot injury.

The U.S. Department of Justice is supporting
research and demonstrations in the area of
technological and environmental interventions. BJA,
for example, has awarded a grant to the Chicago
Police Department to work with the U.S. Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) to increase
the solution rate of firearm-related violent crime
through an innovation called Ceasefire. An
automated projectile comparison system that stores
the images of unique rifling marks found on bullet
surfaces, Ceasefire will allow firearms technicians
to work more efficiently and compare cartridge
casings.

NIJ and the FBI are also involved in the effort to
examine technological solutions to youth gun
violence. Through an interagency agreement, the two
organizations are conducting a study of the
penetration effects on human targets of fired
handgun bullets of various calibers and types.
Analysis will cover different geographical patterns
of shootings and identify significant correlations
between projectile characteristics and resulting
trauma. 

The Role of Federal Law Enforcement

Although it is yet to be determined what the impact
of Federal law enforcement will be with respect to
prosecuting juvenile handgun violations under the
Youth Handgun Safety Act, it is likely to
supplement rather than supersede State and local
law enforcement efforts. Instead, the Federal
Government and the U.S. Department of Justice, in
particular, will intensify efforts to support State
and local law enforcement activities. In addition
to their supportive role, Federal prosecutors and
law enforcement will fill voids in law enforcement
strategies and provide support when State laws
inadequately address the broader impact of youth
violence. Through technical assistance, identifying
resources, interstate gun tracing, national data
collection and surveillance, facilitating
information sharing, highlighting law enforcement
and prevention strategies to address youth gun
violence, and funding demonstration projects, the
Federal Government can help States and local
jurisdictions implement gun safety legislation. All
citizens have a stake in protecting America's
communities and providing safe places for
businesses to grow and youth to develop into
healthy, productive citizens. The following are a
few examples of cooperative efforts spearheaded by
BJA or the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): 

o BJA is funding the development of a Computerized
Information System for the Pittsburgh Police
Department Gun Task Force that will connect
multiple Federal and local law enforcement agencies
via a local area network (LAN) and remote
communications lines to gather and exchange
firearms and related information, including
applications for firearms purchases, carriage,
dealership licenses, and police reports on stolen,
confiscated, and pawned firearms within the
Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

o With CDC, BJS is analyzing data relating to
intentional injury -- including firearm injury --
through a National Electronic Injury Surveillance
System fielded by the Consumer Product Safety
Commission. This data collection effort will
produce detailed information about the types of
injuries that are treated in hospital emergency
rooms, and will compile the first national data
about nonfatal firearm injuries.

o BJA is funding a model Firearms Licensee
Compliance demonstration project in New York City.
The project is a joint effort by the New York City
Police Department (NYPD) and ATF designed to
enhance the ability of the NYPD Pistol License
Division to conduct thorough background
investigations on Federal Firearms License
applicants.

o BJA is also funding a number of demonstration
projects in Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia,
Indiana, and California. In Oakland and Berkeley,
California, and Richmond, Virginia, BJA is
collaborating with State and local police and ATF
to identify, target, investigate, and prosecute
individuals and illicit organizations engaged in
the unlawful use, sale, or acquisition of firearms.

o BJA is supporting the North Carolina Violent
Career Criminal Task Force, which operates
throughout the State and involves ATF and North
Carolina's three U.S. Attorneys. The project is
designed to target, arrest, and convict violent
predatory criminals throughout the State and will
develop a model procedure to disrupt the flow of
firearms to violent offenders.

o BJA will fund, in concert with ATF, a national
law enforcement organization to provide training
and administrative support to the 14-State
Interstate Firearms Trafficking Compact. The
project will inform State and local law enforcement
officers about existing Federal and State firearms-
related statutes and publicize the goals of the
Compact to Federal, State, and local criminal
justice officials, public officials, and the
general public.

In a 1994 report to the Attorney General and the
President of the United States, the U.S. Attorneys
outlined ways they could support State and local
efforts to get guns out of the hands of young
people. Their plans involved six strategies:

o Prosecution and enforcement of the ban on
juvenile handgun possession:

-- Disruption of the markets that provide guns to
youth.

-- Taking guns out of the hands of kids through
coordination with State and local prosecutors.

o Working with State and local officials to enhance
enforcement of their laws.

o Encouraging and providing financial support for
State and local efforts to trace the sources of
guns taken from juveniles.

o Launching targeted enforcement efforts aimed at
places where young people should feel safe (e.g.,
at home, at school, and in recreation centers).

o Actively participating in prevention efforts
aimed at juveniles in our communities through
mentoring programs, school adoption, and
neighborhood watch. 

o Working to promote increased personal
responsibility and safety through public outreach
on the consequences of juvenile handgun possession.

These approaches endorsed by U.S. Attorneys and
supported by the U.S. Department of Justice are
critical components of any comprehensive youth gun
violence reduction strategy. 

Prevention and Intervention Programs

Thus far, this report has examined the incidence of
youth gun violence, its context, an analysis of the
causes, and a range of solutions, from
technological interventions to Federal law
enforcement approaches. It will now address
individual programs that seek to incorporate those
lessons by broadly summarizing the various violence
reduction strategies that have been implemented by
organizations across the country. Detailed
descriptions of these programs can be found in the
Directory of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs.
(See Section II beginning on page 25.)

Although youth can now easily obtain firearms, and
see them used frequently in films and on television
as a method for solving problems, few violence
prevention programs for youth focus specifically on
preventing violence with guns (American
Psychological Association, 1993). The programs that
do exist can be divided into the nine basic
categories listed below. Programs in the first four
categories are generally preventive in nature while
those in the last five categories rely primarily on
interventions: 

o Curriculums 

o Trauma Prevention 

o Gun Buy-Back Programs 

o Public Education Campaigns

o Community Law Enforcement

o Gun Market Disruption and Interception

o Diversion and Treatment Programs

o Gun Courts

o Alternative Schools

In the Directory of Youth Gun Violence Reduction
Programs, OJJDP has identified 51 programs that
fall into these 9 categories. In addition, 34
institutes and organizations that support these
types of programs or that have been instrumental in
their development are listed in the Directory of
Youth Gun Violence Prevention Organizations. (See
Section III beginning on page 45.) 

The following are summaries of the critical
programmatic information provided in these
directories. Most of the programs described below
can be found in Section II. However, a few are
included in Section III.

Focus On Prevention 

Curriculums 

The majority of youth gun violence reduction
programs are curriculums carried out in schools,
community-based organizations, and physicians'
offices. They emphasize the prevention of weapon
misuse, the risks involved with the possession of
firearms, and the need for conflict resolution and
anger management skills. Educational programs often
use videotapes to support their presentation of the
tragic results of gun violence. They may also
include firearm safety instructions, public
information campaigns, counseling programs, or
crisis intervention hotlines.

Law enforcement-based curriculums. Police and
sheriff departments have been instrumental in
supporting violence prevention curriculums. As part
of drug education, public safety, and violence
prevention efforts, police officers and sheriffs
across the Nation have worked collaboratively with
schools to present critical information on gun
violence to young people and, simultaneously, to
develop more effective and personable relations
with young people. Examples of gun violence
reduction curriculums used by law enforcement
include the Gun Safety Awareness Program in Dade
County, Florida; Guns, Teens, and Consequences in
Tulsa, Oklahoma; and the Handgun Violence Reduction
Program in Towson, Maryland.

In Dade County, the Gun Safety Awareness Program, a
districtwide effort for K-12 students and their
parents, began in November 1988, featuring a
comprehensive curriculum and a Gun Safety Awareness
Week in November. The Gun Safety Awareness Program
examines causes of handgun violence in the
community and educates youth and parents on how to
prevent gun-related violence, encourages anonymous
reporting of guns, and teaches the consequences of
being arrested.

Dade County's violence prevention curriculum is
supplemented by area Youth Crime Watches, school
resource officers, and police officers. A Youth
Crime Watch program was mandated for students in
1984 to extend the neighborhood watch concept to
schools. Training workshops for parents on handgun
safety awareness have been conducted in each school
by Parent Education Department staff. Metal
detectors are used unannounced at selected schools,
and students caught with guns are referred to
juvenile or adult court and recommended for
expulsion to an alternative school. Awareness
levels among youth and parents about the need to
prevent handgun violence have increased as a
result.

School-based curriculums. The Center to Prevent
Handgun Violence has developed a school-based
curriculum used extensively across the country that
has been evaluated with positive results. The
Straight Talk About Risks (STAR) program is a
comprehensive school-based program designed to
reduce gun injuries and deaths with prevention
activities for children and their families. Through
STAR, students also learn how to make better, safer
decisions, and how to resolve conflicts without
violence through role playing, goal setting, and
developing leadership skills.

The NRA program Eddie Eagle; the Firearm Injury
Prevention Curriculum in Albuquerque, New Mexico;
Solutions Without Guns in Cleveland, Ohio; and WARN
(Weapons Are Removed Now) in Reseda, California,
are other examples of gun safety curriculums. 

Physician-based curriculums. A number of
curriculums are used by physicians to instruct
parents about the dangers of guns in the home. STOP
-- Steps To Prevent Firearm Injury -- is a
collaborative effort of the Center to Prevent
Handgun Violence and the American Academy of
Pediatrics. It is the first national educational
program designed for pediatricians to use when
counseling parents on the risks of keeping a gun in
the home as well as the dangers guns pose to the
community. Materials include (1) a monograph
addressing the scope and circumstances of gun
injuries and deaths affecting children and teens,
(2) an audiotape that models dialog between
pediatricians and parents, (3) a counseling tip
sheet for quick reference, (4) a bibliography for
further reading, (5) brochures providing facts and
prevention steps, and (6) posters for offices and
waiting rooms. Posters and brochures are also
available in Spanish upon reorder.

Other similar physician-based curriculums include
the Educational Development Center's Firearm
Injuries program and materials produced by the
Injury Prevention and Control Unit in Trenton, New
Jersey.

Trauma Prevention

A second category of programming involves peer
education for young people injured by gun violence.
These programs usually emanate from a public health
project or hospital. 

Youth Alive in San Francisco, California, sends
young counselors into a hospital to persuade
teenage gunshot victims to avoid further violence
by not retaliating. Counselors emphasize that all
revenge is going to do is destroy another life and
put friends (who are doing the retaliating) at risk
of being locked up. Young gunshot victims share
their experiences with kids involved in gang
behavior. 

The Shock Mentor program is another trauma
prevention initiative. Recently developed by Prince
George's County, Maryland, Hospital Center and
Concerned Black Men, Inc., a mentoring group of
African-American professionals, it brings high
school students into the shock trauma and emergency
rooms to watch doctors patch together the victims
and perpetrators of violence. The program is part
of a larger county violence prevention initiative
that includes a schoolwide conflict resolution
program, peer mediation training program, black
male achievement program, and countywide forum on
violence prevention. 

Students visit the trauma center throughout the
school year and are accompanied by members of
Concerned Black Men. Their role is to provide
support and show violence-prone youth that there is
an alternative to becoming a statistic in a trauma
unit.

Other examples of trauma prevention programs
include the Hospital-based Youth Violence
Prevention Program in Camden, New Jersey, People
Opening the World's Eye to Reality (POWER) in New
York City, and Southeastern Michigan Spinal Cord
Injury System in Detroit, Michigan. 

Gun Buy-Back Programs

Many gun buy-back programs are now operating across
the country. These initiatives are precipitated by
diverse events and show varying degrees of success.
This report does not present all of these programs,
only those conducted as part of a wider gun
violence prevention effort. The Prevention
Partnership in Brooklyn, New York, for example,
provides incentives for people to turn in guns for
food vouchers, but also involves the Center for
Substance Abuse and Prevention Community
Partnership and two police precincts. 

Weapon Watch is another example of a more
comprehensive gun turn-in program. Organized by the
mental health center of the Memphis School
District, the Memphis Police Department, and Crime
Stoppers, a group that financially rewards citizens
for calling in tips about crimes, Weapon Watch was
implemented to get children involved in ridding
their schools of weapons. Instead of buying metal
detectors, Memphis officials decided to get
students involved in weeding out the weapons. A
hotline was established for students to call
anonymously with information about classmates who
bring weapons to school. Students who call in are
given a secret code number. Once the call is
received, police are dispatched to the school and
officers conduct an investigation. Students are
rewarded if the information leads to the
confiscation of weapons and arrests of weapon-
carrying students on campus.

Citizens for Safety (CFS), a program in Boston,
Massachusetts, has pulled together a community-
based coalition to reduce violence in Boston. CFS'
membership includes 50 neighborhood and youth
organizations as well as over 500 citizens from
across the city. In 1993 CFS organized a gun buy-
back program that removed 1,302 guns from
circulation. Ongoing activities include expanding
the buy-back program, conducting "Guns Kill"
workshops for teenagers, and sponsoring an annual
24-hour Soccer Marathon for Peace and the Peace
League, a summer educational and recreational
program for gang members.

Public Education Campaigns

A number of campaigns to educate communities and
families about youth violence are currently being
conducted nationally and at the State and local
levels. These campaigns tend to be directed at
young people or women and address the dangers of
guns and the unacceptability of using guns to solve
problems. 

The Children's Defense Fund Cease Fire campaign
advocates 10 steps to stop the war against children
in America, including removing guns from homes,
creating opportunities, providing safe havens,
being informed about media violence and real
violence, and resolving conflicts peaceably. The
campaign features television public service
announcements and the Wall of Names, a print
presentation of more than 600 children in 39 States
killed by gunfire in 1993 and 1994. 

The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence recently
collaborated with Disney Educational Productions to
produce a gun violence prevention video, Under the
Gun, that challenges the glamorization of guns and
the notion that guns make families and youth safer.
Disney plans to market the video to schools,
recreation centers, police departments, juvenile
justice facilities, hospitals, rehabilitation
centers, and other educational organizations.

Other public education programs include the Hands
Without Guns and Words Not Weapons campaigns in
Boston, Massachusetts, and the Fresno (California)
Youth Violence Prevention Network. The Youth
Violence Prevention Network campaign is unique
because it uses young people to deliver anti-gun
violence messages, and is especially geared to
reach Fresno's at-risk, Spanish-speaking residents.
Known previously as Radio Bilingue, the network is
the result of a collaboration by Chicano Youth
Center, House of Hope, Save Our Sons and Daughters,
and End Barrio Warfare. The program works to
strengthen the programs that serve at-risk youth,
thereby empowering young people and communities of
color to work together to reduce violence in their
neighborhoods. Violence prevention activities
include developing gun-free zone programs in city
parks and neighborhoods, school emergency response
and mediation teams led by directors of
organizations that serve high-risk youth, youth
conferences, and youth leadership programs. A key
participant in the coalition is the Radio Bilingue,
a Hispanic-controlled, noncommercial radio station
serving the San Joaquin Valley. Radio Bilingue
broadcasts anti-violence and anti-drug public
service announcements and sponsors Paz, a unique
violence prevention radio program targeted to at-
risk youth, educating them about the causes of
violence and the impact of gun violence. The
program features local speakers, including police
officers, school officials, and community citizens.

By far the most extensive public education campaign
against youth gun violence is the California
Wellness Foundation's Campaign to Prevent Handgun
Violence Against Kids, a $2 million statewide
public education effort that has conducted
extensive research, surveys, polling, focus groups,
and analysis of the target audience; produced
multiple 30-second television public service
announcements that run on prime time in both
English and Spanish; communicated critical
information on youth gun violence through its
"First Aid" portfolio to more than 8,000 elected
officials, key media leaders, and public agencies;
received more than 75,000 calls and 11,000
supporters through its 1-800-222-MANY hotline and
information service; organized a women's coalition
against gun violence; and developed a video
teleconference town hall meeting throughout the
State to unveil its policies on handguns and
firearms.

The California Wellness Campaign is linked to a
broader $30 million, 5-year, statewide initiative
to reduce youth violence in California that
includes the Pacific Center for Violence
Prevention, the policy branch of the initiative; a
leadership program; a community action program that
has funded 10 pilot projects to form broad-based
violence reduction coalitions of major local public
and private entities; and a research program.

Focus on Intervention 

Because intervention programs target a more at-
risk, delinquency-involved population, they tend to
be more intensive, are implemented after patterns
of delinquency and violence are established, and
more actively engage law enforcement and the
juvenile justice system. Programs that intervene
with young people who use guns or have been caught
with guns unfortunately are rare and in dire need
of further development. Although a number of
informal interventions exist that sheriffs, police
officers, probation officers, and others have
developed to reach the population actively involved
in handgun violence, the majority of these efforts
have yet to be formalized into systematic protocols
and have not yet been rigorously evaluated. Given
new Federal legislation, however, the U.S.
Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and
Human Services are particularly interested in
developing and supporting innovative and effective
ways to intervene with young people who have been
caught with guns or are at great risk of being
involved in gun violence. 

A widely used intervention that has received some
evaluation -- and demonstrated mixed results -- is
the use of metal scanners to detect firearms.
According to the National School Safety Center, 70
percent of the Nation's 50 largest districts have
installed scanners in the schools. The New York
City Metal Detector Program is one of the best
known of these programs. Because the use of
scanners, book bag bans, and locker searches is now
so common, these approaches are not covered here.

Community Law Enforcement

The Illinois State Police School Security
Facilitator Program identifies local jurisdictions
in which levels of school violence are causing wide
concern. Representatives from private, government,
and nonprofit programs that play a role in
addressing youth violence in their community are
invited to attend an intensive 5-day team-
building/education program at Illinois State Police
training academy. A typical team includes: 

o Law enforcement personnel 

o School administrators and teachers

o Local State's attorney and public defender

o Local prevention and treatment program staff

o Court officials

o Concerned community members

Community teams range in size from 5 to 15. Each
member is expected to live at the academy (in
trooper dorms) with team members throughout the
training program. Courses are divided between youth
violence education and violence reduction
strategies, including the interdiction of guns
brought into schools. Trainers highlight
identification of situations in which violence may
escalate to use of a weapon, investigative
techniques to acquire secondary and tertiary source
information on weapons carried at the school, and
strategies for weapon removal and cooperation with
law enforcement authorities. Additional programs
such as locker searches, canine searches, and metal
detectors are also discussed. School administrators
are cautioned about direct intervention with an
armed student. Teams then return to their
communities to educate others on youth violence
issues and to implement violence reduction
strategies. No short- or long-term evaluation of
this program has been conducted. Anecdotal
information from prior participants would indicate
some degree of success. 

The University of Virginia Youth Violence Project
focuses on reducing youth violence through a team
approach. Staff bring together a multidisciplinary
team of experts on youth aggression and violence in
the fields of education, psychology, law
enforcement, planning, and crime prevention and
present 4- to 45-hour instruction courses in
selected Virginia cities. Cities that have
participated in the program include Falls Church,
Newport News, Roanoke, Richmond, and Virginia
Beach. 

Participants in the Youth Violence Project --
primarily school and law enforcement officials from
target jurisdictions -- are exposed to a variety of
issues (risk factors for violence, multicultural
dynamics, etc.) and are asked to implement a series
of actions in their schools, including initiating
security assessments and peer mediation. Many of
the program's instructors are local police officers
with extensive experience in weapon detection and
interdiction. The program also emphasizes school
collaboration and cooperation because school
officials typically are not trained in defensive
weapon removal and disarming tactics. In 1994 the
project will expand its reach through a televised
version of the program, School Safety and Youth
Aggression, to be downlinked to 24 sites across
Virginia.

No short- or long-term evaluation of this program
has been implemented. Anecdotal information from
prior participants would indicate some degree of
success. University of Virginia staff would support
any credible outside evaluation effort. 

Gun Market Disruption and Interception

Police weapons searches are another important means
of stemming youth gun violence. If civil rights are
respected and communities are supportive, these
approaches can effectively communicate a message of
strong societal opposition to youth involved in gun
violence.

The Gun Recovery Unit in Washington, D.C., is a
specially trained squad of officers assigned to a
part of the city with an unusually high rate of
firearms crimes. While patrolling the area, the
squad identifies and frisks individuals who raise a
reasonable suspicion of being armed. Most frisked
individuals are under 22 years of age, and about 40
percent are minors. The Howard University Violence
Prevention Project offers an afterschool middle
school program, a preschool program, and a summer
camp that provide social support, tutoring, esteem
building, and cultural enrichment for children who
have been exposed to serious incidents of violence,
including gun violence. The program's services give
children an opportunity to reduce the probability
of their continuing the cycle of violence they are
struggling to escape.

The Kansas City Weed and Seed program is a joint
effort of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S.
Attorney, and the Kansas City Police Department.
They have pulled together a working group
consisting of law enforcement, human service
agencies, and community organizations, including
the regional office of the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development, the Small Business
Administration, the Kansas City Neighborhood
Alliance, and the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime.

The program has focused its policing strategy in
high-crime neighborhoods on using every
opportunity, including traffic and curfew
violations and other infractions, to get guns off
the street. During these routine stops, police look
for infractions that give them the legal authority
to search a car or pedestrian for illegal weapons.
Special gun-intercept teams have also been used in
these neighborhoods, and studies indicate that they
are 10 times more cost-effective than regular
police patrols. In an 80-block neighborhood with a
homicide rate 20 times the national average, the
program reduced crime by at least 50 percent during
a 6-month period. These initiatives did not
displace crime to other locales -- gun crimes did
not increase significantly in any of the patrol
beats surrounding the area. Despite the fact that
previous police campaigns in Kansas City have drawn
protests of discrimination from members of the
community, residents have supported the gun-
intercept program. Police have involved community
and religious leaders in initial planning, and
neighborhoods have made requests for greater police
activity.

Diversion and Treatment Programs 

Diversion and treatment programs provide some of
the most promising examples of violence prevention
techniques that work with youth involved in gun
violence. In Pima County, Arizona, the Juvenile
Diversion Program has set up a firearms prevention
course for youth who are not hardcore delinquents
but who have been referred to juvenile court for
firing or carrying a gun. The program also serves
young people at risk of becoming involved with
guns. At least one parent is required to attend
monthly sessions, during which the assistant
prosecutor informs juveniles and their parents
about gun laws. In addition, parents are instructed
on safe gun storage. By agreeing to take the
course, juveniles avoid having their case
adjudicated and are not placed on probation. They
do, however, acquire a juvenile record.

Project LIFE (Lasting Intense Firearms Education),
operated by the Indiana Juvenile Court, is a
diversion program for juveniles arrested on gun
charges. As in the Juvenile Diversion Program in
Pima County, Arizona, parental participation is
required. Project LIFE is designed to help youth
and their parents learn about the effects of gun
violence and accidents through an experiential
exercise. Children and their parents first prepare
papers on the effect of guns. A discussion based on
these papers opens the education session, and after
the discussion footage of an actual accidental
shooting is shown. Participants and their parents
then discuss how they would have felt had they been
victims of gun violence or accidents. They imagine
and discuss, for example, getting a call from a
morgue rather than from a jail. The majority of
families participating in Project LIFE do not
return to juvenile court on gun charges.

Cermak Health Services of Cook County works with
Cook County, Illinois, jail inmates, the majority
of whom have been involved in gun violence, using a
culturally sensitive curriculum that addresses the
inmates' risk factors for continued involvement in
gun violence. Although these inmates do not
technically represent a juvenile population, they
tend to be young. The program is therefore being
considered for broader use by juvenile offenders. 

Barron Assessment and Counseling Center is a Boston
public school system project for elementary,
middle, and high school students found carrying
weapons on school property. Under the program,
students are charged according to the school
district's disciplinary code and given a hearing
with the community superintendent. If the weapons
charges are substantiated, parents are notified and
the students are referred to the counseling center.
At the center, students receive academic,
psychological, and social assessments, as well as
crisis intervention counseling. They also continue
to receive assignments from school. Working with
the juvenile court, probation officers, and the
Departments of Youth Services, Social Services, and
Mental Health, staff prepare service delivery plans
for each client, including aftercare services.
Special workshops on alternatives to violence are
provided by staff of Northeastern University School
of Law, Office of Emergency Medical Services, and
by staff of Vietnam Veterans Against Violence.

Gun Courts

A special court was recently established in
Providence, Rhode Island, to focus on gun crimes.
In this system, all gun crimes are referred to a
single judge who processes cases on a fast track
that has cut the life span of gun crime cases in
half. Of the 18 cases heard to date, 15 defendants
have been sent to jail. Many defendants, instead of
taking their cases to trial, are now pleading
guilty in exchange for a reduction of up to 2 years
in the State's mandatory 10-year sentence.
 
The gun court model has received support both from
gun control advocates and the NRA. Legislators in
Texas and court administrators in Louisiana and
Illinois are proposing that their States implement
programs modeled after the Providence court. Dade
County is also looking at the model, but
administrators there are concerned about the
county's capacity to handle potential caseloads. In
addition to expediting the handling of cases, these
programs have the potential to address special
treatment issues related to gun violence.

Alternative Schools

Zero tolerance school programs make a strong
statement about keeping guns off school grounds,
but they often do not provide violence-prone youth
opportunities for alternative placement or
education. More effective are programs that attend
to youth through swift and strict sanctions as well
as treatment and viable academic and employment
opportunities. 

At Hazelwood Center High School in Florissant,
Missouri, students suspended for assaults, weapons,
or drugs are referred to a 4-week Student
Intervention Program at a location away from their
home school. In the program, students are required
to complete 4 hours of individualized course work
each day and participate in group counseling
sessions. They also attend weekly individual
counseling sessions that focus on issues such as
conflict mediation, habits and addictions, and
communication. Parental participation is mandated
for the three sessions that examine family history,
parenting skills, and school-related family issues.
After completing the program, students are
evaluated by school administrators to determine if
the remainder of their 90-day suspension can be
served through in-school probation. 

Second Chance School in Topeka, Kansas, is a
similar program, with half-day instruction for
voluntary students who have been expelled for
possession of weapons or assaulting a staff member.
Students study math, social sciences, and language
skills; participate in recreational activities; and
are required to perform community service.
Depending on the seriousness of their offense,
participants attend the program for 1 semester or 1
year. Students who finish the program and meet its
requirements are readmitted to their home schools.
To date, 90 percent of students enrolled in the
Second Chance School have successfully completed
the program. Second Chance has been operating for 3
years and has a maximum capacity of eight students.
The program has developed partnerships with the
juvenile court, public schools, the police
department, and the city's recreational department.

Comprehensive Initiatives

Programs in the Directory of Youth Gun Violence
Reduction Programs (Section II) are listed
alphabetically, and all programs, even those that
have not been evaluated, have been listed to give
the reader a sense of the types of approaches
possible. Research outcomes are indicated for those
programs that have been evaluated. Organizing the
program directory in this way allows the reader to
choose the type of programming best suited to the
needs of their community or State. It is the belief
of OJJDP, however, that any program in and of
itself will not adequately address the myriad
problems associated with youth gun violence. For
example, ridding a public school of weapons cannot
be achieved by simply installing a metal detector
or conducting gun safety awareness programs. An
effective response to youth gun violence that is
sustainable must also include critical related
issues:

Time and again students say the primary reason they
bring weapons to school is for self-protection
traveling to and from school. Violence is a problem
at schools, but principally it is a community
problem. Many schools are surrounded by a 360-
degree perimeter of community crime. Consequently,
the strategies developed in response to school
safety needs must go beyond the schools. The
presence of weapons at schools cannot be separated
from other community safety concerns. Each concern
must be addressed in developing a comprehensive
response (National School Safety Center, 1993).

A comprehensive approach should be based on what we
now know about increased access to and use of guns
by juveniles since 1985. Through research we are
beginning to understand young people's attraction
to particular types of guns; the impact of cultural
influences, particularly media violence and notions
of manliness, on young people's behavior; the
impact of drugs and the illicit drug market on
youth gun violence; the effect of deviant behavior,
gun socialization, and attitudes toward law
enforcement on youth gun violence; the age when
boys are most prone to the lure of guns; and the
detrimental effect of the cycle of fear and lack of
viable opportunities in many communities on youth
gun violence. 

An approach to youth gun violence reduction that
incorporates this research base, includes a
combination of proven strategies, gains the support
of a diverse group of youth-serving organizations,
and involves the community and its youth is likely
to be the most successful. An effective weapons
reduction strategy will be multidisciplinary,
comprehensive, politically sensitive, and
practically relevant. An effective gun violence
prevention program will be age-appropriate, target
the age groups most likely to commit gun violence,
and make the support and participation of parents
and all sectors of the community a priority.
Curriculums approaches are effective at delivering
messages to young people, but they are limited
unless they involve the development of consistent
standards across the areas of children's lives,
particularly family, media, recreation, and
community. Curriculums approaches are also
ineffectual if they fail to include real
experiences with positive alternatives. Only a
communitywide investment in all of the activities
described above will begin to address the cycle of
fear in which the victims and perpetrators of
violence live and build a safe environment for all
children. 

NIJ is supporting such comprehensive activities
through its interagency project to reduce youth gun
violence. In Atlanta, the Center for Injury Control
at Emory University is working with the community,
State and local governments, and Project PACT
(Pulling America's Communities Together) to analyze
youth firearms violence and to develop a broad-
based strategy to address the problem. The
program's intervention will use a three-part
strategy: (1) reducing demand for firearms through
a comprehensive community education program, (2)
reducing supply by promoting safe storage of
firearms and by law enforcement efforts to
interdict the illegal gun market, and (3) prompting
aggressive rehabilitation of juvenile gun offenders
to decrease recidivism.

The St. Louis Police Department has developed a
similar comprehensive approach to reducing violence
within these high-risk populations: African-
American males between the ages of 15 and 29,
younger males at risk of direct and indirect
violence, and adolescent females at risk of family
violence, sexual assault, and co-victimization.

The project will employ two strategies: changing
behavior to reduce gun-related fatalities, reduce
the carrying of weapons, and lessen juveniles' risk
of assault; and improving the criminal justice
system in St. Louis to expand and refine local
surveillance of violence, expand screening and
treatment for violence within medical facilities,
and establish assault crisis teams (ACT's). ACT's
will operate in an emergency medical treatment
center serving high-risk populations, in a juvenile
detention facility, in an adult medium-security
institution, and in neighborhoods with high levels
of violence. At these locations, the crisis teams
will monitor levels and patterns of violence,
create mentoring and education programs for high-
risk youth in nonviolent conflict resolution
techniques, and mediate disputes with a high
potential for violent outcomes.

Other comprehensive initiatives also exist in
communities across the Nation that involve more
grassroots and youth participation and offer
intervention services through public health
services rather than through law enforcement. Some
were inspired by legislative changes and social
service system reform (e.g., Virginia); others
emanated from university centers (e.g., The Harvard
School of Public Health).

Samples of such city and statewide youth gun
violence reduction initiatives and their
programmatic components follow. They are presented
in a checklist format, organized by the types of
strategies described above: legislation, research,
intervention, prevention, hospital-based
prevention, and public education. "Community
involvement" and "collaborative governance and
service delivery" have been added because they are
essential to ensuring the success and long-term
sustainability of any initiative. The checklist
format is designed to help readers consider the
strategy components they could implement or
coordinate in their State or community. Detailed
program descriptions can be found in the Directory
of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs. (See
Section II beginning on page 25.)

Boston, Massachusetts

Legislation: Not applicable.

Research: Harvard Project on Guns, Violence and
Public Health.

Intervention: Boston Gun Reduction Program and
Barron Assessment and Counseling Center.

Prevention: Violence Prevention Curriculum and
Conflict Resolution. 

Hospital-Based Prevention: Identification and
Prevention of Youth Violence: A Protocol Package
for Health Care Providers, and Firearm Injuries.

Public Education Campaign: Hands Without Guns and
Words Not Weapons.

Community Involvement: Citizens for Safety.

Collaborative Governance and Service Delivery:
Boston Violence Prevention Project.

CALIFORNIA

Legislation: A minor may not possess a pistol,
revolver, or other firearm capable of being
concealed upon the person. It is unlawful to
possess a firearm in a school zone without the
written permission of school authorities.

Research: Pacific Policy Center.

Intervention: Not applicable.

Prevention: WARN curriculum.

Hospital-Based Prevention: Teens on Target and
Youth Alive. 

Public Education Campaign: Campaign to Prevent
Handgun Violence Against Kids and The Fresno Youth
Violence Prevention Network.

Community Involvement: Fresno Youth Violence
Prevention Network. 

Collaborative Governance and Service Delivery: The
Oakland Corridor; California Wellness Violence
Prevention Grants; Policy, Action, Collaboration,
and Training (PACT); Violent Injury Prevention
Program; and Contra Costa Continuum of Care.

Chicago, Illinois

Legislation: The handgun ammunition law makes it
illegal to sell, offer for sale, barter, or give
away the kinds of ammunition most commonly used in
gang warfare.

Research: Not applicable.

Intervention: The Chicago Ordinance, State Police
Security Facilitator Program, and Cermak Health
Services of Cook County. 

Prevention: UHLICH Center.

Hospital-Based Prevention: STOP. 

Public Education Campaign: Illinois Council Against
Handgun Violence. 

Community Involvement: Illinois Council Against
Handgun Violence.

Collaborative Governance and Service Delivery:
Chicago Partnership for the Prevention of Violence.

New Jersey

Legislation: Proposed State legislation includes
the following bills:

o a2557 -- Increases penalties for unlawful
possession of firearms in schools.

o a1082 -- Mandates waivers to adult court for any
cases involving juveniles 14 years old or older who
commit serious offenses with a firearm.

o s732 -- Strengthens current laws regarding access
to loaded firearms by minors.

o P.L. 1990, Chapter 31 -- Bans the sale and
severely restricts possession of assault weapons; a
model assault firearms law.

Research: Not applicable. 

Intervention: Not applicable. 

Prevention: Camden County Prosecutor's Office. 

Hospital-Based Prevention: Injury Prevention and
Control Unit and Hospital-Based Youth Violence
Prevention Program.

Public Education Campaign: Injury Prevention and
Control Unit.

Community Involvement: Not applicable.

Collaborative Governance and Service Delivery:
State Attorney General's Law Enforcement and
Educational Task Force, and School Based Youth
Service Program -- Students Against Violence and
Victimization of Youth.

Virginia

Legislation: The juvenile possession of handguns
law prohibits the possession of handguns by
juveniles except within their homes, while engaged
in lawful hunting or supervised target shooting, or
when serving in the military. 

The Firearms Dealers: Record Keeping/Penalty
Enhancement bill requires gun dealers to submit to
State police the type and number of firearms sold
to each client, allowing State police to track
gunrunners. The bill also increases the time police
are required to keep this record from 30 days to 12
months. Gun dealers who illegally sell, rent, or
transfer firearms would be charged with a felony
instead of a misdemeanor if they violate this law.

Research: The Department of Criminal Justice
Services' Criminal Justice Research Center, in
collaboration with the Virginia Commonwealth
University Survey Research Laboratory, conducted a
statewide survey of 815 residents in which 83
percent of respondents agreed that there should be
a limit on the number of handgun purchases per
month; and 63 percent thought strict gun control
laws would reduce violent crime.

Intervention: University of Virginia Youth Violence
Project and Juvenile Criminal History Records.
Virginia is one of the first States to have a
computerized system operated by the State police,
the Central Criminal Records Exchanger, that
informs gun dealers if a prospective buyer has a
criminal record. 

Prevention: Not applicable.

Hospital-Based Prevention: Not applicable.

Community Involvement: Enough is Enough, Inc.

Collaborative Governance and Service Delivery: In
June 1992 the Governor's multi-disciplinary
Commission on Violent Crime was convened to study
the problem and propose solutions. The
Comprehensive Services Act also provides for better
coordinated delivery of social services to at-risk
youth and their families.

Summary of Comprehensive Initiatives

Even a cursory review of these initiatives reveals
that multiple efforts are often under way in the
same cities, but that they are uncoordinated. The
next steps in any youth violence reduction strategy
should be to facilitate interagency coordination at
the State and community levels and to evaluate the
need for Federal support. In particular, most youth
violence reduction initiatives could benefit
greatly by including a public housing component. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's
Operation Safe Home program is an obvious link.
Another program, Keep Our Kids Alive, targets
public housing youth in New York City who carry and
use guns. The program trains housing youth officers
to identify kids who fit a gun carrier profile and
then work as mediators, and trains resident youth
to implement an antigun violence education program
for other young residents. This program would
complement school-based strategies and public
education campaigns.

Initiatives also need to focus on building economic
opportunities for low-income youth and linking job
training, neighborhood restoration, and economic
development to youth gun violence reduction
programs. Young people need to be involved in
positive practical experiences that develop their
ability to contribute to society and improve their
ability to recognize the sanctity of life and the
great risks associated with delinquent behavior.

Conclusion

This report has discussed the body of research on
juvenile violence with which we can now begin to
understand the epidemic of youth gun violence
confronting our Nation. It has also presented a
range of violence prevention and reduction
strategies being implemented in cities across this
country that can serve as models for other
communities. An examination of these preliminary
efforts, however, clearly indicates that
comprehensive violence reduction initiatives need
to provide youth a continuum of care and sanctions
to consistently attend to the safety of children
and families throughout their lives. Because many
city and statewide initiatives have developed out
of diverse sectors of the community and are often
synthesized from isolated projects, gaps that can
cripple their overall effectiveness are not
uncommon in the delivery of services or the
development of sanctions. 

With all comprehensive efforts, a combination of
strategies must be employed. For initiatives
attempting to reduce youth gun violence to be
successful, an approach incorporating the
strategies laid out in this document will likely be
most effective. From legislative mandates to
further research, from intervention to prevention
and alternative treatment programs, from hospital-
based prevention programs to grassroots and youth-
based collaborative efforts, each holds the key to
making our homes, streets, and neighborhoods safe
for our children.

------------------------------

II. Directory of youth Gun Violence Reduction
Programs 

This directory summarizes promising programs across
the country that seek to reduce youth gun violence.
Programs noted with an asterisk are part of a
citywide violence reduction strategy -- in some
cases delivery of these programs' services is
coordinated at the State and community level; in
other cases, they simply exist in the same city or
State and need to be coordinated.

Adolescent Wellness Program

1010 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
tel: 617/534-5196
fax: 617/534-5358
Nia Sue Mitchum, Director

The Adolescent Wellness Program is a multi-
institutional, community-based initiative designed
to reduce the incidence of interpersonal violence
among adolescents, as well as the social and
medical hazards associated with that violence. The
major intervention used to conduct this project is
a violence prevention curriculum designed for
adolescents that focuses on conflict resolution.

The program has also developed, in collaboration
with the Educational Development Center, a resource
called Identification and Prevention of Youth
Violence: A Protocol Package for Health Care
Providers. Published in 1992, the protocol guides
providers in addressing and responding to young
patients at high risk of engaging in violent
behavior. It is currently used in several Boston
neighborhood health care centers.

Assault Crisis Teams

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department
1200 Clark Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
tel: 314/444-5620
fax: 314/444-5958
Colonel Clarence Harmon, Chief of Police

The National Institute of Justice has recently
funded the St. Louis Police Department to reduce
violence within the following at-risk populations:
African-American males between the ages of 15 and
29, younger males at risk of direct and indirect
violence, and adolescent females at risk of family
violence, sexual assault, and co-victimization.

The project will employ two strategies: changing
behavior to reduce gun-related fatalities, reduce
the carrying of weapons, and lessen juvenile's risk
of assault; and improving the criminal justice
system in St. Louis to expand and refine local
surveillance of violence, expand screening and
treatment for violence within medical facilities,
and establish assault crisis teams (ACT's). ACT's
will operate in an emergency medical treatment
center serving high-risk populations, in a juvenile
detention facility, in an adult medium-security
institution, and in neighborhoods with high levels
of violence. At these locations, the crisis teams
will monitor levels and patterns of violence,
create mentoring and education programs for high-
risk youth in nonviolent conflict resolution
techniques, and mediate disputes with a high
potential for violent outcomes.

*Barron Assessment and Counseling Center

Boston Public Schools
25 Walk Hill Street
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
tel: 617/635-8123
fax: 617/635-8117
Raffael DeGruttola, Acting Director

Begun in 1987 by Frank Barron in response to a
dramatic increase in student violence at Boston's
public schools, the Barron Assessment and
Counseling Center is an intervention service for
elementary, middle, and high school students found
carrying weapons on school property. Under the
program, students are charged according to the
school district's disciplinary code and given a
hearing with the community superintendent. If the
weapons charges are substantiated, parents are
notified and the students are referred to the
counseling center. At the center, students receive
academic, psychological, and social assessments, as
well as crisis intervention counseling. They also
continue to receive assignments from school.
Working with the juvenile court, probation
officers, and the Departments of Youth Services,
Social Services, and Mental Health, staff prepare
service delivery plans for each client, including
aftercare services. Special workshops on
alternatives to violence are provided by staff of
Northeastern University School of Law, Office of
Emergency Medical Services, and by staff of Vietnam
Veterans Against Violence. Although outside
evaluation has not yet been completed, internal
evaluation indicates a recidivism rate of 5 percent
for first-time offenders from 1987 to 1993. Second-
time offenders are now also being served.

Build the Missing Peace (formerly Enough is Enough,
Inc.)

708 Cloverly Street
Suite 202
Cloverly, MD 20905
tel: 301/879-0561
fax: 301/879-0562
Julie A. Elseroad, Founder

Build the Missing Peace, founded in 1991 as the
Enough is Enough, Inc., program, is a community-
based effort to combat violence. It currently
functions with eight volunteers and a five-member
board of directors. The program, which is based in
suburban Maryland, has sponsored 4 successful gun
turn-in campaigns, which removed more than 600 guns
from the streets, and a White Ribbon Campaign.

Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence Against Kids 

California Wellness Foundation
454 Las Gallinas Avenue, Suite 177
San Rafael, CA 94903-3618
tel: 415/331-3337
fax: 415/331-2969
Yvette Martinez, Project Director

By far the most extensive public education campaign
against youth gun violence is the California
Wellness Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence
Against Kids, a statewide effort that has conducted
extensive research, surveys, polling, focus groups,
and analysis of target audiences; produced multiple
30-second television public service announcements
that run on prime time in both English and Spanish;
communicated critical information on youth gun
violence through its "First Aid" portfolio to more
than 8,000 elected officials, key media leaders,
and public agencies; received more than 75,000
calls and 11,000 supporters through its 1-800-222-
MANY hotline and information service; organized a
women's coalition against gun violence; and
developed a video teleconference town hall meeting
throughout the State to unveil its policies on
handguns and firearms.

The California Wellness Campaign is linked to a
broader $35 million, 5-year, statewide initiative
to reduce youth violence in California that
includes the Pacific Center for Violence
Prevention, the policy branch of the initiative; a
leadership program; a community action program that
has funded 10 pilot projects to form broad-based
violence reduction coalitions of major local public
and private entities; and a research program.

*Cermak Health Services of Cook County

2800 South California Avenue
Chicago, IL 60608
tel: 312/890-7488
fax: 312/890-7792
Michael Puisis, Director

According to a 1993 survey of 582 inmates at Cook
County Jail in Chicago, Illinois, one in every four
men in the facility had been shot at least once in
his life. Involvement in the criminal justice
system may be the single best predictor of a person
becoming injured through violence. Presently,
nearly 20 million people move in and out of jails
in the United States each year. Many have past
violence-related injuries and are at high risk of
violent injuries or death in the future. Health
care service providers in jails such as Cook County
have opportunities and obligations to intervene in
both health risk situations and medical problems
that might otherwise impact the community.
Multidisciplinary strategies are needed to reduce
risks of violence in this population. These
strategies include treating the emotional trauma of
a witnessed or experienced violent event, removing
gang tattoos, providing hope for a future, reducing
criminal recidivism through carefully evaluated
reintegration programs, and reducing the
accessibility of firearms.

*Citizens for Safety

100 Massachusetts Avenue, Fourth Floor
Boston, MA 02115
tel: 617/542-7712
Diedre Butler-Henderson, Director 

Citizens for Safety (CFS) is a community-based
coalition working to reduce violence in Boston.
CFS' membership includes 50 neighborhood and youth
organizations as well as over 500 citizens from
across the city. In 1993 CFS organized a gun buy-
back program that removed 1,302 guns from
circulation. Ongoing activities include expanding
the buy-back program, conducting "Guns Kill"
workshops for teenagers, and sponsoring recreation
programs for at-risk youth, including an annual 24-
hour Soccer Marathon for Peace and the Peace
League.

Eddie Eagle

Elementary Gun Safety Education Program National
Rifle Association of America
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, VA 22030
tel: 703/267-1000
Melinda Bridges, Program Manager

The National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle
program is designed to make children in grades K-5
aware that guns are not toys and teaches children
proper safety steps if they see a gun. The
program's message is: "Stop, Don't Touch; Leave the
Area, and Tell an Adult."

Program materials and activities may be covered in
either a single class period or in two or more
class periods and are geared for two age levels.
Each child receives a copy of the NRA's gun safety
guide for parents to reinforce the program's
message at home.

Firearm Injuries

Educational Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street
Newton, MA 02158-1060
tel: 617/969-7100, ext. 2331
fax: 617/244-3436
Christine Bennett

A program developed by the Educational Development
Center is one of the Educating Professionals in
Injury Control (EPIC) resources. It describes the
public health approach to firearm injury
prevention, the magnitude and cost of the problem,
the epidemiology of intentional and unintentional
firearm injury and death, the ballistics of firearm
injury, and strategies for prevention.

Firearm Injury Prevention Curriculum

New Mexico Emergency Medical Services for Children 
 (EMS-C) Project 
University of Mexico School of Medicine 
Emergency Medical Department 
2211 Lomas
NE. Ambulatory Care Center 4 West
Albuquerque, NM 87131
tel: 505/272-5062
fax: 505/272-6503
Lenora Olsen, Program Manager

Firearm Injury Prevention is a recently published
K-8 curriculum created by the EMS-C Firearm Injury
Prevention Taskforce. It is one of several
Taskforce injury prevention activities developed as
part of a 3-year grant from the Maternal and Child
Health Bureau. Other activities include development
of posters, public service announcements, and tags
on guns for sale warning parents about the risk of
unsecured loaded weapons. The 110-page curriculum
began as a pilot program in the Albuquerque Public
Schools during the 1992- 93 academic year. It
includes a discussion of the importance of
involving youth in the project's formative stage;
accounts of firearm fatalities involving children
in New Mexico; lesson plans on problem solving,
peer refusal skills, and strong self-esteem;
creative exercises emphasizing hands-on application
of interdisciplinary lessons; and drawings,
stories, and comments of youth who participated in
the program's pilot project.

*Firearms and Violence: Juveniles, Illicit Markets,
and Fear

Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of 
 Government 
Program in Criminal Justice Policy and
 Management 
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
tel: 617/495-5188
fax: 617/496-9053
Susan Michaelson, Assistant Director

In Boston, the city's police department has teamed
up with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University to implement a gun market disruption and
youth gun violence prevention project based on
David Kennedy's research. Called the Program in
Criminal Justice Policy and Management, it assists
the Boston Police Department in analyzing its
juvenile gun problem and designing an intervention.
Particular attention in the problem-solving process
is given to strategies to disrupt the local black
market in firearms and to reduce fear that drives
juveniles to acquire and carry firearms.

*Fresno Youth Violence Prevention Network

Radio Bilingue, Inc. 
1111 Fulton Mall, Suite 700
Fresno, CA 93721
tel: 209/498-6965
fax: 209/498-6968
Nora Benavides, Project Director

Fresno Youth Violence Prevention Network,
previously known as Radio Bilingue, is the result
of a collaboration by Chicano Youth Center, House
of Hope, Save Our Sons and Daughters, and End
Barrio Warfare. The Network campaign is unique
because it uses young people to deliver anti-gun
violence messages to Fresno's at-risk, Spanish-
speaking residents. The program works to strengthen
the programs that serve at-risk youth, thereby
empowering young people and communities of color to
work together to reduce violence in their
neighborhoods. Violence prevention activities
include developing gun-free zone programs in city
parks and neighborhoods, school emergency response
and mediation teams led by directors of
organizations that serve high-risk youths, youth
conferences, and youth leadership programs. A key
participant in the coalition is Radio Bilingue, a
Hispanic-controlled, noncommercial radio station
serving the San Joaquin Valley. Radio Bilingue
broadcasts anti-violence and anti-drug public
service announcements and sponsors Paz, a unique
violence prevention radio program targeted to at-
risk youth, educating them about the causes of
violence and the impact of gun violence. The
program features local speakers, including police
officers, school officials, and community citizens.

Gun Court

250 Benefit Street
Providence, RI 02903
tel: 401/277-3250
Judge Robert Krause

A special court was recently established in
Providence, Rhode Island, to focus on gun crimes.
In this system, all gun crimes are referred to a
single judge who processes cases on a fast track
that has cut the life span of gun crime cases in
half. Of the 18 cases heard to date, 15 defendants
have been sent to jail. Many defendants, instead of
taking their cases to trial, are now pleading
guilty in exchange for a reduction of up to 2 years
in the State's mandatory 10-year sentence.

The Gun Court model has received support both from
gun control advocates and the NRA. Legislators in
Texas and court administrators in Louisiana and
Illinois are proposing that their States implement
programs modeled after the Providence court. Dade
County is also looking at the model, but
administrators there are concerned about Dade
County's capacity to handle potential caseloads. In
addition to expediting the handling of cases, these
programs have the potential to address special
treatment issues related to gun violence.

Gun Recovery Unit

1624 V Street NW.
Washington, DC 20009
tel: 202/673-3506
fax: 202/673-2154
Lieutenant Richard Hobson

Washington, D.C.'s Gun Recovery Unit is a specially
trained squad of officers assigned to a part of the
city with an unusually high rate of firearms
crimes. While patrolling the area, the squad
identifies and frisks individuals who raise a
reasonable suspicion of being armed. The large
majority of individuals who are frisked are under
22 years of age, and about 40 percent are minors. 

Gun Safety Awareness Program

Safety and Driver Education
Dade County Public Schools
6100 Northwest Second Avenue
Miami, FL 33127
tel: 305/757-0514
fax: 305/757-7626
Stephanie Harrington, Division of School Police

In Dade County, a Youth Crime Watch program was
mandated for students in 1984 to extend the
neighborhood watch concept to schools. The Gun
Safety Awareness Program, a districtwide effort for
K-12 students and their parents, began in November
1988, featuring a comprehensive curriculum and a
Gun Safety Awareness Week in November. The Gun
Safety Awareness Program examines causes of handgun
violence in the community, educates youth and
parents on how to prevent gun-related violence,
encourages anonymous reporting of guns, and teaches
the consequences of being arrested.

Dade County's violence prevention curriculum is
supplemented by area Youth Crime Watches, school
resource officers, and police officers. Training
workshops for parents on handgun safety awareness
have been conducted in each school by Parent
Education Department Staff. Metal detectors are
used unannounced at selected schools, and students
caught with guns are referred to juvenile or adult
court and recommended for expulsion to an
alternative school. Awareness levels among youth
and parents about the need to prevent handgun
violence have increased as a result. 

Guns, Teens, and Consequences

Tulsa Public Schools
3027 South New Haven, P.O. Box 470208
Tulsa, OK 74147-0208
tel: 918/746-6450
fax: 918/746-6521
Jack Arnold

To keep all schools in the Tulsa public school
district free of weapons, the district mailed a
summary of relevant State laws to families with
students enrolled in its schools. One of the city's
police officers, who is also a Drug Awareness
Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) officer, produced a
video, Guns, Teens, and Consequences, that has been
shown to more than 6,000 middle and high school
students.

Handgun Intervention Program

36th District Court
Madison Center
421 Madison Avenue
Detroit, MI 48226
tel: 313/965-3724
Terrence Evelyn, Program Coordinator

Gun violence, especially involving youth and young
adults, is increasingly recognized as both a
serious crime problem and a threat to the Nation's
public health. Traditional criminal justice
responses, while an important component of the
national response, have proven insufficient for
solving the problem. In turn, the stubbornness of
gun violence in the face of increasingly severe
punishment has drawn attention to the possibility
of preventing incidents of gun violence before they
occur.

The lack of success in preventing gun violence is
in part a matter of insufficient knowledge. Perhaps
even more problematic is a policy dilemma that
quickly confronts the promoters of most preventive
measures. Focusing on some "high-risk" population
raises concerns about stigmatizing an entire group
because of the behavior of a few.

The Handgun Intervention Program (HIP), a Detroit-
based intervention program operated by volunteers
in the State of Michigan's 36th District Court,
seeks to avoid these problems. HIP educates and
confronts defendants charged with carrying a
concealed weapon (CCW) with the consequences of gun
violence, the personal risks of gun carrying, the
importance of nonviolence and personal
responsibility in African-American heritage, the
realities of prison life, and alternatives to
violence. In this way, the HIP intervention program
treats CCW violations as both an occasion for
arrest and an opportunity for prevention of future
violent events.

Handgun Violence Reduction Program 

Baltimore County Police Department
700 East Joppa Road
Towson, MD 21286-5501
tel: 410/887-5846
fax: 410/887-5955
Sergeant Karen Sciascia

The Handgun Violence Reduction Program is a project
of the Baltimore County Police Department that
emphasizes public education and handgun safety. The
program's public information campaign consists of a
hotline, public service announcements, and
presentations in the community that provide
information on safe storage of guns, the legal
issues and liabilities of gun ownership, and the
limitations of guns as personal protection. 

Baltimore County police also collaborated with the
Baltimore public school system to design gun safety
curriculums for the third, seventh, and ninth
grades that teach children the dangers of handgun
misuse. Uniformed police officers make
presentations in schools about gun safety and
violence prevention. These curriculums seek to
deglamorize handguns and to provide children
information on how they should respond when
threatened by or coming into contact with a gun. 

A 3-year evaluation that studied student response
to scenarios involving guns indicated that the
program improved students' attitudes, knowledge,
and behavior. 

Hands Without Guns

Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence
100 Maryland Avenue NE., Suite 1102
Washington, DC 20002
tel: 202/544-7227
fax: 202/544-7213
Josh Horowitz, Executive Director

Hands Without Guns is a collaborative project of
six organizations -- Educational Fund to End
Handgun Violence, National Institute for Violence
Prevention, Harvard Injury Control Center, Citizens
for Safety, New England Medical Center, and 2 PM --
to reduce gun violence in Boston through public
health education. The effort will develop a model
public education campaign with the following
elements:

o A unique partnership among health care providers,
community advocates and leaders, public health
experts, victims, and a CDC-funded research center.

o A clearly defined public health focus and
innovative multimedia techniques.

o Grassroots community organization focused on
empowering youth, families, and neighborhoods.

o National visibility through the networking
leadership of the Educational Fund.

o Evaluation by the multidisciplinary research
center based at the Harvard School of Public
Health.

o A program capable of replication in cities
throughout the United States.

Hazelwood Center High School Student Intervention
Program

15955 New Halls Ferry
Florissant, MO 63031
tel: 314/839-9500
fax: 314/839-9524
Nancy Snow or Mike Adam, Counselors

At Hazelwood Center High School in Florissant,
Missouri, students suspended for assaults, weapons,
or drugs are referred to a 4-week Student
Intervention Program at a location away from their
home school. In the program, students are required
to complete 4 hours of individualized course work
each day and participate in group counseling
sessions. They also attend weekly individual
counseling sessions that focus on issues such as
conflict mediation, habits and addictions, and
communication. Parents' participation is mandated
for the three sessions that examine family history,
parenting skills, and school-related family issues.
After completing the program, students are
evaluated by school administrators to determine if
the remainder of their 90-day suspension can be
served through inschool probation. 

*Hospital-based Youth Violence Prevention Program
(Trauma Unit Tour)

Camden County Prosecutor's Office
25 North Fifth Street
Camden, NJ 08102
tel: 609/225-8400
fax: 609/963-0083
Michael Olsefski

The Hospital-based Youth Violence Prevention
Program is based at Cooper Hospital/University
Medical Center (Trauma Center) in Camden, New
Jersey, and targets children who have been charged
or convicted of crimes and referred to the
Intensive In-House Supervised Detention Program.
The program's objectives are to present a realistic
portrayal of the trauma resuscitation process; to
discuss the emotional, social, and physical impacts
of violent crime injury; and to discuss alternative
solutions to avoid or minimize violent behavior.
Program activities include tours of the
resuscitation area, audiovisual aids, graphic
depictions of the physical effects of violence,
closeups of bullet and stab wounds, and tours of
the hospital morgue and trauma intensive-care unit.
In the intensive-care unit, patients' conditions,
life support equipment, pain, and prognoses are
discussed. 

Howard University Violence Prevention Project

525 Bryant Street NW.
Washington, DC 20059
tel: 202/797-0723
Hope Hill, Director

The Howard University Violence Prevention Project
offers an afterschool middle school program, a
preschool program, and a summer camp that provides
social support, tutoring, esteem building, and
cultural enrichment for children who have been
exposed to serious incidents of violence, including
gun violence. The program's services give children
an opportunity to reduce the probability of their
continuing the cycle of violence they are
struggling to escape.

*Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence

202 South State Street, Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60604
tel: 312/341-0939
fax: 312/341-9770
Dan Kotowski, Project Coordinator

The Council has helped law enforcement officials
ban "Cop Killer" bullets in Illinois, raised public
awareness of the proliferation of handguns in the
streets, monitored judicial action regarding
firearm offenders, and formed ONTARGET, a 200-
member coalition of law enforcement and elected
officials, health care professionals, community
groups, and professional organizations working to
reduce gun violence in Illinois. The Council has a
membership base of 5,000.

Coalition members are also fighting for a tax on
firearms and ammunition to pay for trauma care,
seeking to hold manufacturers legally responsible
for death and injuries caused by "Saturday Night
Specials" and assault weapons, urging stricter
regulation of the 10,000 federally licensed gun
dealers in Illinois, and developing public
education campaigns.

*Illinois State Police School Security Facilitator
Program

Illinois State Police
Training Academy
Springfield, IL 62707
tel: 217/786-6902
fax: 217/786-7208
Linda Lange

The Illinois State Police School Security
Facilitator Program identifies local jurisdictions
in which levels of school violence are causing wide
concern. Representatives from private, government,
and nonprofit programs that play a role in
addressing youth violence in their community are
invited to attend an intensive 5-day team
building/education program at the Illinois State
Police training academy. A typical team includes: 

o Law enforcement personnel. 

o School administrators and teachers.

o Local State's attorney and public defender.

o Local prevention and treatment program staff.

o Court officials.

o Concerned community members.

Community teams range in size from 5 to 15. Each
member is expected to live at the academy (in
trooper dorms) with team members throughout the
training program. Courses are divided between youth
violence education and violence reduction
strategies, including the interdiction of guns
brought into schools. Trainers highlight
identification of situations in which violence may
escalate to use of a weapon, investigative
techniques to acquire secondary and tertiary source
information on weapons carried at the school, and
strategies for weapon removal and cooperation with
law enforcement authorities. Additional programs
such as locker searches, canine searches, and metal
detectors are also discussed. School administrators
are cautioned about direct intervention with an
armed student. Teams then return to their
communities to educate others on youth violence
issues and to implement violence reduction
strategies. No short- or long-term evaluation of
this program has been conducted. Anecdotal
information from prior participants would indicate
some degree of success. 

*Injury Prevention and Control Unit

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
New Jersey Department of Health
50 East State Street, CN-364
Trenton, NJ 08625-0364
tel: 609/984-6137
fax: 609/292-3580
Liz Congdon, Program Manager

The Injury Prevention and Control Unit supports
youth violence prevention initiatives in Camden,
Newark, and Paterson -- urban areas with the
highest rates of gunshot wound deaths in New
Jersey. The New Jersey Department of Health
(NJDOH), an active participant on the Medical
Society of New Jersey's Subcommittee on Violence --
which represents 9,500 New Jersey physicians -- has
identified preventing violence and helping victims
of violence as major public health priorities. The
subcommittee has developed and distributed model
medical policies for use by physicians in
identifying and properly handling or referring
cases of violence. Other activities have included
national lobbying for restrictive gun legislation,
educating the medical community on gunshot injuries
and prevention, and involving youth in making
videos on guns.

NJDOH is also involved in a number of interagency
efforts. It is represented, for example, on the
Violence and Vandalism Task Force, a U.S.
Department of Education working group developing
recommendations to reduce school violence and
vandalism.

Juvenile Diversion Program

Pima County Attorney's Office and Juvenile Court
2225 East Ajo Way
Tucson, AZ 85713
tel: 602/740-5089
fax: 602/770-9212
Clint Stinson, Assistant County Attorney

In Pima County, Arizona, the Juvenile Diversion
Program has set up a firearms prevention course for
youth who are not hardcore delinquents but who have
been referred to juvenile court for firing or
carrying a gun. The program also serves young
people at risk of becoming involved with guns. At
least one parent is required to attend monthly
sessions, during which the assistant prosecutor
informs juveniles and their parents about gun laws.
In addition, parents are instructed on safe gun
storage. By agreeing to take the course, juveniles
avoid having their cases adjudicated and are not
placed on probation. They do, however, acquire
juvenile records.

Kansas City Weed and Seed Program

1201 Walnut Street, Suite 2300
Kansas City, MO 64106
tel: 816/426-3122
fax: 816/426-4176
Steven Hill, United States Attorney

The Kansas City Weed and Seed Program is a joint
effort of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S.
Attorney, and the Kansas City Police Department.
They have pulled together a working group
consisting of law enforcement, human service
agencies, and community organizations including the
regional office of the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development, the Small Business
Administration, the Kansas City Neighborhood
Alliance, and the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime.

The program has focused its policing strategy in
high-crime neighborhoods on using every
opportunity, including traffic and curfew
violations and other infractions, to get guns off
the street. During these routine stops, police look
for infractions that give them the legal authority
to search a car or pedestrian for illegal weapons.
Special gun-intercept teams have also been used in
these neighborhoods, and studies indicate that they
are 10 times more cost-effective than regular
police patrols. In an 80-block neighborhood with a
homicide rate 20 times the national average, the
program reduced crime by at least 50 percent during
a 6-month period. These initiatives did not
displace crime to other locales -- gun crimes did
not increase significantly in any of the patrol
beats surrounding the area. Despite the fact that
previous police campaigns in Kansas City have drawn
protests of discrimination from members of the
community, residents have supported the gun
intercept program. Police have involved community
and religious leaders in initial planning, and
neighborhoods have made requests for greater police
activity.

Keep Our Kids Alive

216 East 99th Street
New York, NY 10029
tel: 212/410-8505
fax: 212/996-0137
Detective Frank Agayo

The Keep Our Kids Alive program targets public
housing youth who carry and use guns. The program
trains housing youth officers to identify kids who
fit a gun carrier profile and then work as
mediators. The program also trains resident
youngsters to implement anti-gun violence education
programs for other young residents.

MAD DADS (Men Against Destruction -- Defending
Against Drugs and Social Disorder) 

221 North 24th Street
Omaha, NE 68110
tel: 402/451-3366
fax: 402/451-3500
Edward Staton, President

The Omaha, Nebraska-based MAD DADS program is a
member of the nationwide coalition of community
fathers who offer violence prevention through
community service. Using community policing
strategies, MAD DADS assists law enforcement
agencies by providing weekend street patrols in
troubled areas; reporting and videotaping crime,
drug sales, and other destructive activities to
authorities; painting over gang graffiti; and
challenging drug dealers and gang members to leave
the area. Community activities offered for youths
include chaperoning community events and providing
counseling services. Members also make quarterly
visits to local jails and prisons to counsel and
encourage youth and adults to join the program.

MAD DADS also has conducted successful gun buy-back
programs with city police departments and sponsored
gun safety classes with local law enforcement
officials and the Omaha office of the FBI. The
program sponsors an annual citywide Drug Treatment
Awareness Week with the Omaha Community Partnership
and a citywide youth Anti-Violence Task Force with
the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Pizza
Hut Restaurants of Omaha. MAD DADS operates in
communities in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska;
Houston, Texas; Denver, Colorado; 23 cities in
Florida; Greenville, Mississippi; New York City;
Baltimore, Maryland; Columbus, Ohio; and Council
Bluffs, Iowa. The gun buy-back programs have
resulted in the collection of more than 2,500 guns
since 1991.

New York City Metal Detector Program

New York City Public Schools
Director of School Safety
600 East Sixth Street
New York, NY 10009
tel: 212/979-3311
fax: 212/979-3283
Lt. Dario Negron

In 1988, as part of a broader violence prevention
program that included curriculums, peer mediation,
and crisis intervention teams, the New York City
school system instituted a metal detector program.
The 16 schools chosen to participate (out of a
total of 125 schools in the system) were schools in
which the highest numbers of weapons were being
found. School security staff began using hand-held
metal detectors to conduct unannounced lobby
searches of students at the start of the day. The
program required a mobile staff of 120 and cost
$300,000 per year per school. According to school
system personnel, aside from removing more than
2,000 weapons, weapon-related incidents of all
types decreased in 13 of 15 schools. Attendance
also improved as a result of the program, and many
students expressed an increased sense of security.
Since that time, the number of New York City
schools with metal detectors has risen to 41. 

*PACT (Policy, Action, Collaboration, and Training)

Violence Prevention Project 
Contra Costa County Health Services Department 
75 Santa Barbara Road
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
tel: 510/646-6511
Larry Cohen, Project Director

PACT is a collaboration among the Contra Costa
County Health Services Department Prevention
Program, West Contra Costa County organizations,
and the California Department of Health Services. A
coalition of 10 local agencies guide implementation
of activities to identify causes of violence, study
strategies for reducing violence, and advocate for
solutions. The cornerstone of PACT is violence
prevention leadership training for African-
American, Laotian, and Latino youths. Training and
followup activities help youth focus on issues of
violence and develop their own strategies for
violence prevention.

Youth outreach is supported and enhanced by
neighborhood partnerships involving business,
schools, government, neighborhood residents, and
community organizations. PACT's multicultural
collaboration promotes awareness and respect for
West Contra County's diversity through activities
such as community forums, parent councils, and
cultural festivals. 

PACT staff have also compiled a set of resources
for a public health policy response to gun violence
in local communities for use by policymakers, media
representatives, and other health department
personnel working to prevent gun injuries and
deaths. Most recently, the project developed an
action plan for preventing violence in Contra Costa
County. The plan was placed on the November 1994
ballot by the Contra Costa County Board of
Supervisors. The plan is supported by a "Framework
for Action" that enumerates many of the specific
activities local communities and governmental
bodies can undertake to reduce and prevent
violence.

The project has an evaluation component to assess
the degree of involvement by community
organizations, the relationship between county
government and community organizations, and changes
in youth attitudes about violence. 

People Opening the World's Eye to Reality (POWER)

Goldwater Memorial Hospital
Roosevelt Island
New York, NY 10044
tel: 212/318-4361
fax: 212/318-4370
Samuel Lehrfeld, Program Director

POWER members are patients at Goldwater Memorial
Hospital in New York City who are disabled and
sometimes dependent on respirators. All were
seriously injured as a result of drugs or street
violence. They range in age from 19 to 44. Confined
to wheelchairs, POWER members pay visits twice a
week to high schools, correctional facilities,
probation agencies, and community centers to tell
their stories to youth of similar ages and
circumstances. Because some members were
incarcerated due to their involvement with drugs
and substance abuse, they are in a unique position
to warn their peers about the hazards of drugs.
Their message to violent youth is simple: "Put down
the guns and drugs and pick up the books, because
drugs, guns, and violence have only three results:
jail, paralysis, or death!"

The Prevention Partnership

Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Grant
139 Menahan Street
Brooklyn, NY 11221
tel: 718/574-5100
fax: 718/574-6090
Hilda Roman-Nay, Executive Director

This program in Brooklyn, New York, gives
incentives to people to turn in guns. It includes
the Fighting Back community partnership, a local
high school, and two police precincts. Guns are
exchanged for food vouchers. 

Project LIFE (Lasting Intense Firearms Education)

Training and Alternative Programs
Marion Superior Court, Juvenile Division
2451 North Keystone Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46218
tel: 317/924-7440
fax: 317/924-7508
Stacia Lozer, Director of Hiring, Training and
Alternative Programs

Project LIFE is a diversion program for juveniles
arrested on gun charges operated by the Indiana
Juvenile Court. Parental participation is required.
Project LIFE is designed to help youth and their
parents learn about the effects of gun violence and
accidents through an experiential exercise.
Children and their parents first prepare papers on
the effect of guns. A discussion based on these
papers opens the education session, and after the
discussion footage of an actual accidental shooting
is shown. Participants and their parents then
discuss how they would have felt had they been
victims of gun violence or accidents. They imagine
and discuss, for example, getting a call from a
morgue rather than from a jail. The majority of
families participating in Project LIFE do not
return to juvenile court on gun charges.

Second Chance School

Topeka Schools USD 501
423 South East Norwood
Topeka, KS 66607
tel: 913/233-0313
fax: 913/575-6161
Rome Mitchell, Director

The Second Chance School is a half-day
instructional program for voluntary students
expelled for possession of weapons or assaulting a
staff member. Students engage in studies of math,
social sciences, and language skills; participate
in recreational activities; and are required to
perform community service. Depending on the
seriousness of their offense, students attend the
program for 1 semester or 1 year. Upon successful
completion of the program, grades are sent to the
home schools and students are readmitted. To date,
90 percent of enrolled students have successfully
completed the program. The program has been
operating for 3 years and has a maximum capacity of
eight students in the morning class and eight in
the afternoon class. In addition, the program has
developed partnerships among the juvenile courts,
the public schools, the police department, and the
recreational department.

Shock Mentor Program

Prince George's Hospital Center
3001 Hospital Drive
Cheverly, MD 20785
tel: 301/618-2100
fax: 301/618-3966
Allan E. Atzrott, President

The Shock Mentor program was recently developed by
Prince George's Hospital Center and Concerned Black
Men, Inc., a District of Columbia-based mentoring
group of African-American professionals. The
program brings Prince George's high school students
into the hospital's shock trauma and emergency
rooms to watch doctors patch together the victims
and perpetrators of violence. It is part of a
larger county violence prevention initiative that
includes schoolwide conflict resolution programs,
peer mediation training programs, black male
achievement programs, and countywide forums on
violence.

Students visit the trauma center throughout the
school year and are accompanied by members of
Concerned Black Men. Their role is to provide
support and show violence-prone youth that there is
an alternative to becoming a statistic in a trauma
unit.

Solutions Without Guns

Gun Safety Institute
320 Leader Building
Cleveland, OH 44114
tel: 216/623-1111
fax: 216/687-1482
Dr. Joseph D. Claugh, Founder and President 

The Solutions Without Guns program is a multimedia
education curriculum designed to address four
factors that students have identified as the main
cause of handgun violence among youth: (1) guns and
the people who use them are exciting, (2) guns
provide safety and power, (3) aggression is a
response to shame or disrespect, and (4) children
are comfortable with aggression. A substantial
increase in gun-prone activity occurs between fifth
and sixth grade, and the program is based on the
view that students, teachers, and parents must
understand what these factors are and that children
must learn to choose positive alternative behaviors
when faced with situations that have the potential
to result in gun violence.

The program's goals are geared toward prevention,
not interdiction, providing students with skills to
identify the four gun-proneness factors in
themselves and others. The program also identifies
and emphasizes alternative positive behaviors,
resisting negative peer pressure in regard to the
four factors, and practicing appropriate prosocial
behavior. The curriculum is language arts-based but
is meant to be integrated into other daily
classroom lessons through academically oriented
activities and exercises. Teachers and students
have been enthusiastic about the program's
potential to reduce violence at school. 

Southeastern Michigan Spinal Cord Injury System

Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan
261 Mack Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201
tel: 313/745-9740
fax: 313/993-0812
Marcel Diskers, Director

The Southeastern Michigan Spinal Cord Injury System
provides high school students a video, Wasted
Dreams, and discussion guide on gunshot victims and
injuries. Produced by the Rehabilitation Institute
of Michigan and distributed by Film Ideas, Inc.
(800-475- 3456), the video explores the effects of
violence on seven young men. This group of
teenagers and one young man, who can breathe only
with the help of a respirator, describe how they
were shot and how they could have avoided becoming
victims. 

*State Attorney General's Law Enforcement and
Educational Task Force

Division of Criminal Justice
25 Market Street, CN085
Trenton, NJ 08625-0085
tel: 609/292-4925
fax: 609/292-3508
Deborah Poritz, State Attorney General

The State Attorney General's Law Enforcement and
Educational Task Force is an interagency effort to
lower the incidence of school violence in New
Jersey. In 1993, the task force signed agreements
regarding students who carry guns on school grounds
with all school superintendents in the State. This
agreement between the State department of education
and law enforcement officials includes provisions
for dealing with weapons on school property and
establishes reciprocal rights and responsibilities
for teachers, parents, and law officials.

*STOP -- Steps To Prevent Firearm Injury 

American Academy of Pediatrics
141 Northwest Point Boulevard, P.O. Box 927
Elk Grove Village, IL 60009
tel: 800/433-9016
fax: 708/228-5097
Michelle Esquivel, Director

STOP -- Steps To Prevent Firearm Injury -- is a
collaborative effort of the Center to Prevent
Handgun Violence and the American Academy of
Pediatrics. It is the first national educational
program designed for pediatricians to use when
counseling parents on the risks of keeping a gun in
the home as well as the dangers guns pose to the
community. Materials include (1) a monograph
addressing the scope and circumstances of gun
injuries and deaths affecting children and teens,
(2) an audiotape that models dialog between
pediatricians and parents, (3) a counseling tip
sheet for quick reference, (4) a bibliography for
further reading, (5) brochures providing facts and
prevention steps, and (6) posters for offices and
waiting rooms. Posters and brochures are also
available in Spanish upon reorder.

This package, which has been disseminated to more
than 700 AAP members, is currently being evaluated.
Preliminary findings show that, after receiving
prevention materials, pediatricians are more
willing to talk about firearm injuries and
fatalities.

Straight Talk About Risks

Center to Prevent Handgun Violence
1225 Eye Street NW.
Washington, DC 20005
tel: 202/289-7315
fax: 202/962-4601
Nancy Gannon, Director of Education

Straight Talk About Risks (STAR) is a comprehensive
school-based violence prevention curriculum for
four grade clusters (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12)
designed by the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.
Through STAR, students learn how to make better,
safer decisions and resolve conflicts without
violence through role playing; how to resist peer
pressure to play with or carry guns; how to
distinguish between real life and TV violence; goal
setting; and the development of leadership skills.

The program includes curriculums in English and
Spanish, training, technical assistance, and safety
information for parents. The curriculums provides a
flexible format: activities may be taught alone,
through a health or social skills class, or can be
taught over several weeks. Many of the activities
are suitable for use in English, mathematics,
science, and visual and performing arts classes. A
recent evaluation found that the program was most
effective for students in grades 3 to 5 in terms of
improvement in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. 

*UHLICH Children's Home

3737 North Mozart Street
Chicago, IL 60618-3689
tel: 312/588-0180
fax: 312/588-7762
Thomas VandenBerk, President

The president of UHLICH Children's Home, Thomas
VandenBerk, has developed a fact sheet on how child
welfare agencies and child advocates can help stop
handgun violence. Suggestions include providing
parents with conferences, informational sessions,
and programs about the risks of weapons in the
home.

*University of Virginia Youth Violence Project

University of Virginia
Hampton Roads Center
Virginia Beach, VA 23462
tel: 804/552-1890
fax: 804/552-1898
Dyanne Bostain, Director

The University of Virginia's Youth Violence Project
focuses on reducing youth violence through a team
approach. Staff bring together a multidisciplinary
team of experts on youth aggression and violence in
the fields of education, psychology, law
enforcement, planning, and crime prevention and
present 4- to 45-hour instruction courses in
selected Virginia cities. Cities that have
participated in the program include Falls Church,
Newport News, Roanoke, Richmond, and Virginia
Beach. 

Participants in the Youth Violence Project --
primarily school and law enforcement officials from
target jurisdictions -- are exposed to a variety of
issues (risk factors for violence, multicultural
dynamics, etc.) and are asked to implement a series
of actions in their schools including initiating
security assessments and peer mediation. Many of
the program's instructors are local police officers
with extensive experience in weapon detection and
interdiction. The program also emphasizes school
collaboration and cooperation because school
officials typically are not trained in defensive
weapon removal and disarming tactics. In 1994, the
project will expand its reach through a televised
version of the program, School Safety and Youth
Aggression, to be downlinked to 24 sites across
Virginia.

No short- or long-term evaluation of this program
has been implemented. Anecdotal information from
prior participants would indicate some degree of
success. University of Virginia staff would support
any credible outside evaluation effort. 

*Vehicle Impoundment in the City of Chicago

Office of Building and Management
City Hall, Room 604
Chicago, IL 60602
tel: 312/744-2604
fax: 312/744-0471
John Holden

A 1992 Chicago ordinance empowers police officers
to impound any car transporting illegal firearms or
drugs. Once impounded, the vehicle can be reclaimed
only through a $500 nonrefundable bond or, if the
owner claims the seizure was improper, through a
hearing before an administrative officer. Since
October 1992, nearly 2,000 cars have been
impounded, most from youth under 25.

*Violent Injury Prevention Program

Monterey County Health Department Injury Prevention
Section 
1000 South Main Street, #306
Salinas, CA 93901
tel: 408/755-8486
fax: 408/758-4770
Diana Jacobson, Chief

The Violent Injury Prevention Program (VIPP),
directed by a Violent Injury Prevention Coalition
and a steering committee, seeks to prevent and
reduce acts of violence in Salinas, California,
through community unification and disseminating
educational resources and information. The steering
committee, composed of representatives from diverse
sectors of the community (e.g., education,
religious, criminal justice, health, and
government), identified and prioritized violence
issues in the Salinas community and then developed
recommendations for the Violent Injury Prevention
Coalition to implement. These issues ranged from
alcohol and other drug abuse to a perceived need to
take a firmer approach to violence. Recommendations
to address these concerns included the creation of
a community information hotline and the development
of anti-violence weapon safety materials, and a
discount trigger lock coupon program. The program
sponsored a Stop the Violence Day that featured a
variety of events, including a peace rally. In
April 1992, as part of Violence Prevention Month,
nearly 1,900 people pledged to stop violence. The
program also aired violence prevention PSAs on
local television stations. 

In addition, program staff distribute an
information sheet for parents to fill out whenever
their children visit friends. On this sheet,
parents document where their children are, whether
there are any guns in the house, and, if so,
whether they are locked up. All information
distributed by the program is printed in English
and Spanish. Evidence of success is indicated by
the institutionalization of this private-sector
partnership in the community. 

*WARN (Weapons Are Removed Now)

Reseda High School
18230 Kittridge Street
Reseda, CA 91335
tel: 818/342-6186
fax: 818/776-0452
Jay Shaffer, Director

WARN is an anti-weapons program designed to keep
weapons off school campuses. The program's
objective is to convince students that violence is
an improper method for settling disputes; that
weapons on campus are life threatening; and that
informing on those who bring weapons on campus is a
morally responsible act.

The program trains high school students to visit
their neighborhood elementary and middle schools
and speak to students on the danger of weapons in
school. Method of presentation is left to students'
discretion, provided adult guidance is present. The
administration of the high school assists students
by confirming contacts with local feeder schools
and by providing transportation if needed.

Weapon Watch

Mental Health Center
Memphis City School District, Room 102
2597 Avery Avenue
Memphis, TN 38112
tel: 901/325-5810
fax: 901/325-7634
Dr. Gerry Nichol, Director

Weapon Watch was implemented to get children
involved in ridding their schools of weapons. The
Memphis City School District joined forces with the
Memphis Police Department and Crime Stoppers, a
group that financially rewards citizens for calling
in tips about crimes. Instead of buying metal
detectors, Memphis officials decided to get
students involved in weeding out the weapons.

A hotline was established for students to call
anonymously with information pertaining to
classmates who bring weapons to school. Students
who call in are given a secret code number. Once
the call is received, police are dispatched to the
school, and officers conduct an investigation.
Students are rewarded if the information leads to
the confiscation of weapons and arrest of the
carrier.

*Words Not Weapons

Office of Violence Prevention
Massachusetts Department of Public Health
150 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02111
tel: 617/727-1246
fax: 617/727-6088
Salena Respass, Director

The Words Not Weapons campaign is currently
coordinated by the Massachusetts Office of Violence
Prevention and is cosponsored by the Massachusetts
Department of Education, the Massachusetts
Committee on Criminal Justice, and the Governor's
Alliance Against Drugs.

Enrollment in the program is open to schools in
cities and towns in all areas of the State.
Massachusetts Governor William Weld has pledged to
make personal visits to each participating school
to meet students and staff. Plans include training
for teachers and other school personnel and
creating linkages among parents, the media, and
community agencies. Although the initial efforts
will focus on schools, the program's long-range
goal is communitywide expansion that includes many
segments of society -- law enforcement, criminal
and juvenile justice, business, religious
institutions, and health care and social service
organizations.

Youth, Firearms, and Violence in Atlanta

Emory University School of Public Health
1599 Clifton Road, NE.
Atlanta, GA 30329
tel: 404/727-5481
fax: 404/727-8744
Dr. Arthur Kellermann

Dr. Arthur Kellermann of Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia, is working with the community,
State and local governments, and Project PACT
(Pulling America's Cities Together) to analyze
youth firearms violence and to develop a broad-
based strategy to address the problem. The
intervention will employ a three-part strategy: (1)
reducing demand of firearms through a comprehensive
community education program, (2) reducing supply by
promoting safe storage of firearms and supporting
law enforcement efforts to interdict the illegal
gun market, and (3) rehabilitating juvenile gun
offenders to decrease recidivism.

Zero Tolerance Program

San Diego City Schools
4100 Normal Street
San Diego, CA 92103-2682
tel: 619/293-8418
fax: 619/293-8067
Dr. Frank Till, Director

The Zero Tolerance Program is targeted to middle,
junior, and senior high school students in San
Diego city schools. Under this program, students
found in possession of a firearm, knife, explosive,
or any other dangerous object at school are
immediately suspended and recommended for
expulsion. These students are given the option of
attending a district Zero Tolerance Program for a
minimum of one semester. If the student elects to
attend the program, the expulsion is suspended.

The Zero Tolerance Program was established to allow
students disciplined for weapons offenses to
continue their studies, receive counseling and more
individual attention, work at their own pace, and
complete as many courses as possible. The program
considers all objects used in a threatening manner
to be weapons. Trespassing on school grounds by
students who are not enrolled and who have not been
cleared by the school office is treated as a
recorded, suspendable offense, and a third offense
requires attendance at a Zero Tolerance Program. In
every case in which students violate applicable
Education and Penal Codes, they are charged and
arrested and taken to a juvenile detention facility
or county jail.

------------------------------

III. Directory of Youth Gun Violence Prevention
Organizations

Advocacy Institute

1730 Rhode Island Avenue NW., Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036-3118
tel: 202/659-8475
fax: 202/659-8484
Michael Pertschuk, Co-Director

The Advocacy Institute is working to build an
infrastructure for the movement against gun
violence, including a computer network (Safety Net)
to link advocates fighting gun violence. Its
objective is to build a unified voice and alliance
that can challenge and surpass the influence of the
National Rifle Association and its allies in the
arena of public policy and values. The Institute
plans to develop a gun violence training program
for community-based advocates, and provide
researchers technical assistance on monitoring and
timely dissemination of gun policy and policy-
related research.

American Academy of Pediatrics

141 North West Point Boulevard
P.O. Box 927
Elk Grove Village, IL 60009-0227
tel: 800/433-9016
Dr. Joe M. Sanders, Jr., Director

In 1985 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
issued a policy statement encouraging its members
to support gun control. In 1992, AAP
recommendations on the issue extended beyond
legislative and regulatory measures and included
removing handguns from the environment in which
children live and play, reducing the destructive
power of ammunition, and reducing the
romanticization of gun use in the popular media. 

AAP's membership has recommended that gun
manufacturers and retailers develop and sell gun
safety devices. For the long term, AAP advocates
that legislative bans be placed on various firearms
and the public be made aware of the prevalence of
childhood gun injuries.

American Bar Association

750 North Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60611
tel: 312/988-5109
fax: 312/988-5100
George E. Bushnell, Jr., President-Elect

The American Bar Association (ABA) and its national
membership of over 370,000 lawyers is engaged in a
range of activities to reduce gun violence in our
Nation. The ABA Legal Solutions to Gun Violence
helps cities, counties, and States draft and enact
ordinances and laws to regulate firearms, including
legislation to ban the manufacture, sale, and
possession of all assault weapons. Additionally,
ABA is working with a broad coalition of law
enforcement, medical and public health, victim
advocacy, and community and locally based
organizations in public education efforts related
to the Constitution's Second Amendment, risks and
costs of gun violence, and the impact of gun
violence on children and youth. ABA supports the
efforts of the recently formed bar advocacy groups
in San Francisco (Legal Community Against Violence)
and New York (Lawyers' Committee Against Violence),
for the primary purpose of pursuing damage suits on
behalf of victims of gun violence.

American Psychological Association

Commission on Violence and Youth
750 First Street NE.
Washington, DC 20002-4242
tel: 202/336-5500
fax: 202/336-6063
Jackie Gentry, Director

An American Psychological Association commission
was created in 1991 to review current and past
research on youth violence. In August 1993, the
Commission released a report entitled "Violence and
Youth: Psychology's Response." Next steps include a
conference in January on the subject.

Annie E. Casey Foundation

701 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
tel: 410/547-6600
fax: 410/547-6624
Bart Lubow, Senior Associate

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is considering the
following issues in its work to develop a
comprehensive strategy to protect children and
youth from handgun violence. 

o Building a movement to end the political and
cultural traditions that sustain unregulated
handgun manufacture and distribution.

o Avoiding and repealing regressive juvenile and
adult justice system laws and policies that
needlessly punish kids while consuming vast amounts
of scarce tax dollars for practices that do not
improve community safety.

o Ensuring that, in terms of research and
information system development, policies to prevent
or reduce handgun violence are driven by data.

o Focusing more attention in the gun violence arena
on issues of importance to disadvantaged children
and communities, and bringing community perspective
and experience to violence prevention efforts.

o Determining and employing state-of-the-art
policies and programs to reduce violence,
especially handgun violence.

o Reforming initiatives to incorporate a message
that supports both new policies and effective
strategies to reduce handgun violence.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
Division of Violence Prevention
4770 Buford Highway, NE., Mailstop K60
Atlanta, GA 30341-3724
tel: 404/488-4362
fax: 404/488-4349
Jim Mercy, Director

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) is currently tracking baseline data and
delineating strategies to address the "Healthy
People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention Objectives," three of which concern
firearm accessibility.

Through extramural research grants, CDC is funding
the State-based Firearm Injury Surveillance
Projects to provide more complete epidemiologic
descriptions of firearm injuries. This information
will in turn be used to identify intervention
points and design, implement, and evaluate
prevention activities. Missouri, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin, and
Colorado are collecting data from emergency rooms,
police, newspaper accounts, and child fatality
offices. These projects will help determine the
most useful sources of data and the most efficient
methods for combining information from those
sources. The final goal is a system that will
monitor the number, severity, cost, causes, and
other epidemiologic characteristics of firearm
injuries both locally and nationally.

Cooperative agreements have been undertaken to
evaluate specific interventions that may reduce
injuries and deaths caused by interpersonal
violence among adolescents and young adults. To
date, 13 projects have been funded. 

CDC is also funding 5-year Community Demonstration
Projects to determine the effectiveness of multiple
interventions in a coordinated violence prevention
program. The projects are designed to help
communities design and implement multifaceted
community youth violence prevention programs.

Center for Injury Control

Emory University School of Public Health
1462 Clifton Road, NE.
Atlanta, GA 30322
tel: 404/727-9977
fax: 404/727-8744
Arthur L. Kellermann, Director

Arthur L. Kellermann's research at Emory University
in Atlanta, Georgia, focuses on guns in the home.
In studies of gun deaths in Washington, British
Columbia, Tennessee, and Ohio, his research has
shown that guns kept at home are used far more
often to commit suicide or to kill a family member
than to fend off a potentially fatal criminal
attack. His prevention strategy is based on public
education much like that of early anti-smoking
campaigns.

The Center is also working with the community,
State and local governments, and Project PACT
(Pulling America's Communities Together) to analyze
youth firearms violence and to develop a broad-
based strategy to address the problem.

Center to Prevent Handgun Violence

1225 Eye Street NW.
Washington, DC 20005
tel: 202/289-7319
fax: 202/408-1851
Nancy Gannon, Director of Education Programs
(HELP): 202/289-5769

The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (CPHV) is a
national, nonprofit organization created to help
America understand the realities of handgun
violence and the dangers posed by loaded, easily
available handguns. CPHV educates the public about
ways to reduce gun violence through partnerships
with experts in medicine and public health, law,
education, law enforcement, community groups, the
media, and the entertainment industry. Its
activities include legal action (e.g., amicus
briefs on behalf of victims), primary prevention,
education, and efforts to affect the way that
entertainment media portray gun violence. The
Center has developed programs for use in school and
in law enforcement and health settings.

CPHV has been involved as amicus curiae in United
States v. Lopez, a United States Supreme Court case
regarding the constitutionality of the Federal Gun-
Free School Zones Act, which was enacted in 1990.
The challenge to the Act is being brought by a
12th-grade student caught carrying a concealed .38-
caliber handgun and five bullets at a San Antonio
high school. He told police he was planning to
deliver the gun to another student who intended to
use it in a "gang war." The student argues that
because possession of guns is a local matter,
Congress lacks power under the Constitution to
enact a law banning their possession in school
zones.

Joined by six national educational and seven
national law enforcement organizations, CPHV argues
that the possession of guns near schools, by
fueling gun violence, has a substantial effect on
interstate commerce. In addition to imposing
enormous direct costs on society, gun violence in
schools threatens the educational process with far-
reaching consequences for the national economy. The
result of the case may be that the possession and
use of guns at schools may have to be regulated on
a State-by-State basis.

CPHV's Entertainment Resources Department staff
work with individuals in the entertainment industry
to ensure that their portrayal of gun violence is
realistic and accurate. A recent collaboration with
Disney Educational Productions produced a gun
violence prevention video, Under the Gun, that
challenges the glamorization of guns and the notion
that guns make us safer. Disney plans to market the
video to schools, recreation centers, police
departments, juvenile justice facilities,
hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and other
educational organizations.

Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence

University of Colorado, Boulder
Campus Box 442
Boulder, CO 80309-0442
tel: 303/492-1032
fax: 303/443-3297
Laura Greiner, Project Coordinator

The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence
(CSPV) was founded in 1992 with a grant from the
Carnegie Corporation of New York to provide
assistance to professional groups committed to
understanding and preventing violence, particularly
adolescent violence.

CSPV has a threefold mission. First, an Information
House collects research literature on the causes
and prevention of violence and provides direct
information services to the public by offering
topical bibliographic searches. Second, CSPV offers
technical assistance for the evaluation and
development of violence prevention programs. Third,
CSPV maintains a basic research component through
data analysis and other projects on the causes of
violence and the effectiveness of intervention and
prevention programs. 

Children's Defense Fund

25 E Street NW.
Washington, DC 20001
tel: 202/628-8787
fax: 202/662-3540
Kim Wade, Assistant General Counsel

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a research and
advocacy organization interested in all issues
pertaining to children. Attorneys working for CDF
write publications on reducing firearms, and CDF
staff collect data on children who are victims of
gun violence. CDF is addressing the problem of gun
violence through multiple approaches:

o Legislation addressing the epidemic of gun
violence committed by and against children.

o Community mobilization: The Children's Sabbath,
Child Watch violence module, and Safe Start
leadership training in cities across the country.

o Data collection on gun fatalities among children.

o Public education on violence issues for adults
and teenagers.

CDF's Cease Fire campaign involves 10 steps to stop
the war against children in America. They include
removing guns from homes, creating opportunities
and safe havens, being informed about violence and
media violence, and resolving conflicts peaceably.
The campaign also features television public
service announcements and the Wall of Names, a
print presentation of more than 600 children from
39 States killed by gunfire in 1993 and 1994.

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

100 Maryland Avenue NE.
Washington, DC 20002
tel: 202/544-7190
fax: 202/544-7213
Michael Beard, President, Founder, and Director

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) was
founded in 1974, and is one of the Nation's oldest
anti-gun lobbies. A coalition of citizens groups
and religious, professional, labor, medical, and
educational associations, CSGV has 120,000 members
nationwide. The goal of the Coalition is to
eliminate most handguns and assault weapons in the
United States through bans on importation,
manufacture, sale, transfer, ownership, possession,
and use by the general public. Reducing weapons use
would be accomplished by limiting the availability
of gun dealers' licenses, increasing gun dealers'
license fees, licensing gun users, increasing
handgun ammunition taxes to offset health care
costs, enforcing strict liability for gun
manufacturers and dealers, and enacting a national
one-handgun-a-month law. Exceptions would be made
for police, military, security officers, and gun
clubs.

To accomplish these goals, CSGV vigorously lobbies
Congress, counteracts the National Rifle
Association, maintains an active legal program,
initiates and assists litigation cases against
manufacturers and dealers, conducts public
education and awareness campaigns, and coordinates
a network of grassroots activists across the
country. The Educational Fund to End Handgun
Violence is CSGV's educational arm.

Communications Consortium

1333 H Street NW.
Washington, DC 20005
tel: 202/682-1270
fax: 202/682-2154 

Communications Consortium is developing a public
policy and education campaign called Women's Voices
on Gun Violence: Building New Alliances for Public
Safety. The campaign's fundamental premise is that
there are numerous precedents (e.g., cigarette
smoking and reproductive rights) for redefining an
issue in terms of how it affects women and families
and women's role in making decisions that affect
their lives. As part of this campaign, the
Consortium has reviewed past polling and media
trends to probe public perceptions on women and
guns, identified at least 14 areas of the United
States that are potential media markets for
building new alliances among women for public
safety, and assessed campaigns in American history
that led to mobilization around social issues.

Educational Development Center, Inc.

Children's Safety Network 
Adolescent Violence Prevention Resource Center
National Injury and Violence Prevention Resource
 Center
55 Chapel Street
Newton, MA 02158-1060
tel: 617/969-7100, ext. 2359
fax: 617/244-3436
Beth Jacklin, Director

The Adolescent Violence Prevention Resource Center
was established to improve the science and practice
of youth violence prevention. To accomplish this
goal, the Educational Development Center is
providing State Maternal and Child Health agencies
with information, resources, materials, and
technical assistance to encourage the development
of new adolescent violence prevention programs and
the improvement of current efforts.

Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence

110 Maryland Avenue, NE., Box 72
Washington DC 20002
tel: 202/544-7227
fax: 202/544-7213
Josh Horowitz, Executive Director

The Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence, a
project of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, was
founded in 1978 to advocate for stopping violence
caused by firearms, disseminate research and
scholarship, educate the public on gun control
issues, and run a firearms litigation
clearinghouse. The Fund's primary project is Hands
Without Guns, a collaborative public education
campaign.

George Gund Foundation

1845 Guildhall Building
45 Prospect Avenue West
Cleveland, OH 44115
tel: 216/241-3114
fax: 216/241-6560

The George Gund Foundation has funded several youth
gun violence reduction programs, including the
Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, for its legal
action project and Second Amendment media campaign;
and Youth Alive, for a study of the use of local
zoning and business codes to regulate firearms
dealers.

Gun Safety Institute
The Leader Building
526 Superior Avenue, #338
Cleveland, OH 44114
tel: 216/574-9179
fax: 216/687-1482
Joseph B. Clough, Founder and President

The Gun Safety Institute commissioned research from
the Child Guidance Center of Greater Cleveland to
measure attitudes toward guns and violence among
urban youth. In a survey of 461 fifth-, seventh-,
and ninth-grade students in the Cleveland Public
School System, four factors were commonly cited as
to why many youth are attracted to guns: youth
perceive guns as fun, they believe safety is
achieved through power, they have more confidence
in aggression than in negotiation, and many youth
believe that feelings of shame can be eliminated
through aggression. 

Handgun Control Incorporated

1225 Eye Street NW., Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
tel: 202/898-0792
fax: 202/371-9615
Richard Aborn, Director

As the lobbying branch of the Center to Prevent
Handgun Violence, Handgun Control, Inc., has
proposed comprehensive legislation to regulate
every level of the gun industry. Proposed
legislation would:

o Require a license to buy a handgun, mandate
fingerprint checks and safety training for license
applicants, include a mandatory 7-day cooling off
period, and require the registration of handgun
transfers.

o Prohibit gun possession by those convicted of
violent misdemeanors, including spouse or child
abuse, and require a special license for possession
of a gun arsenal (20 guns or 1,000 rounds of
ammunition).

o Require gun dealers to pay an annual license fee
of $1,000; prohibit the sale of more than one
handgun a month to any individual, mandate a
Federal license for ammunition dealers, and require
background checks for gun store employees; ban
firearm sales at gun shows; and create "a private
cause of action" for gun law violations.

o Ban semiautomatic assault weapons, Saturday Night
Special handguns, and nonsporting ammunition;
regulate gun safety; and increase the surtax on
handguns and handgun ammunition. 

Handgun Epidemic Lowering Plan (HELP) Network of
Concerned Professionals

c/o The Children's Memorial Medical Center
2300 Children's Plaza, #88
Chicago, IL 60614
tel: 312/880-3826
fax: 312/880-6615
Amy Friedman, Director

HELP is a new organization based at Children's
Memorial Hospital (CMH) in Chicago composed of
health professionals who work to reduce the handgun
violence epidemic by addressing it as a public
health problem. The HELP agenda calls for
legislation to regulate handguns and handgun
ammunition and increased surveillance of firearms
deaths and injuries. Katherine Kaufer Christoffel,
attending physician at CMH, serves as head of the
project. The network publishes a quarterly
newsletter, holds an annual national conference,
operates a clearinghouse on information gathered
from member organizations, and has a steering
committee to guide network activities. Steering
committee members include the National Association
of Children's Hospitals, the American Academy of
Pediatrics, the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence,
Dartmouth Medical Center, the Violence Policy
Center, and the New York and Los Angeles City
Departments of Health.

Harvard Project on Guns, Violence, and Public
Health

Harvard Injury Control Center
Harvard University School of Public Health
718 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
tel: 617/432-0814
fax: 617/432-0068
Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Director

Founded in 1987 with funding from the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, the Harvard
Injury Control Center is a multidisciplinary
research center studying public health, medicine,
epidemiology, program evaluation, violence
prevention, criminology, economics, psychology,
behavioral sciences, and statistics. The Center's
goal to "promote injury control through public
policy" is accomplished through applied research
projects, training activities, and communications
with professionals and the public.

Injury Prevention Center

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
615 North Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21287
tel: 410/955-3555
fax: 410/614-2797
Stephen P. Teret, Director

The Injury Prevention Center started working on the
issue of handgun violence in the early 1980's and
is working to redirect public attention from gun
users to gun manufacturers by requiring
manufacturers to make safer and fewer guns. The
Center also advocates for holding gun manufacturers
and sellers legally liable for harm their products
do, educates the public about gun hazards, and
lobbies for regulating gun advertising.

International Association of Chiefs of Police

515 North Washington Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
tel: 703/836-6767
fax: 703/836-4543
John Firman, Director

The International Association of Chiefs of Police
(IACP) is currently conducting research in the area
of school violence, particularly guns in schools.
The project, Reducing School Violence, is a joint
effort of the University of Virginia and IACP.

IACP, through retired chief John Granfield of the
Alexandria, Virginia, Police Department, offers a
course covering all aspects of weapon incidents in
schools, including disarming suspects, weapon
identification, and effective use of police
resources when such incidents occur. The course has
been presented at a number of area schools and has
been well received. 

Joyce Foundation

135 South LaSalle Street
Chicago, IL 60603-4886
tel: 312/782-2464
fax: 312/782-4160
Deborah Leff, President

The Joyce Foundation is committed to improving the
quality of life in the Midwest, particularly for
those programs with fewer resources and
opportunities. It supports programs in
conservation, culture, economic development,
education, and the prevention of gun violence.

Its current initiatives include:

o Developing a major gun policy center through its
board.

o Funding Harvard University School of Public
Health for two Louis Harris polls and establishing
the Harvard Project on Guns, Violence, and Public
Health.

o Funding the Advocacy Institute to research and
publish Toward a Gun-Safe Society: Movement
Building Strategies.

o Funding the HELP Network.

o Funding the Children's Express Foundation for
hearings on violence in the lives of children.

o Funding the Illinois Council Against Handgun
Violence. 

o Funding Cook County Hospital in Chicago to
produce and distribute anti-violence posters on
buses and in subways. 

o Funding the Communications Consortium to develop
a public policy campaign addressing gun violence
against women. 

o Funding the Hyde Park Bank Foundation to publish
a book of essays, poems, and pictures on violence
created by Chicago elementary school students. 

o Funding the Children's Defense Fund to launch its
Gun Violence Prevention Campaign. 

o Funding the Childhood Firearm Injury Prevention
Project. 

o Funding the Johns Hopkins University School of
Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland,
to conduct analysis of firearm advertisements and
to plan Safety Net, a data network on guns. 

o Funding the Violence Policy Center. 

o Funding the Medical College of Wisconsin to
establish in Milwaukee County an integrated firearm
injury reporting system that could serve as a
national model.

o Funding the Educational Broadcasting Corporation
to create television programs on children and
violence.

Legal Community Against Violence

A Fund of the San Francisco Foundation

101 California Street, Suite 1075
San Francisco, CA 94111
tel: 415/433-2062
fax: 415/433-3357
Barrie Becker, Executive Director

The Bay Area legal community, with support from
government and business leaders and The San
Francisco Foundation, has created the Legal
Community Against Violence (LCAV). LCAV is
dedicated to ending the sale to the public of
military-style assault weapons and ammunition and
large-capacity magazines, and regulating the
availability of other firearms and bullets to help
protect our society from gun violence.

LCAV's goal is to mobilize the legal community and
other concerned citizens to work for gun violence
prevention through legislative, legal, and
education efforts. Its members support and draft
gun control legislation, serve as a resource to
elected officials, provide assistance and financial
support to litigation against negligent gun dealers
and manufacturers, and educate the public on gun
control issues. LCAV also has provided funding to
gun violence survivors to testify in Congress on
behalf of the Brady Bill and the recent successful
legislation to ban assault weapons.

Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse

3000 Chestnut Avenue, Suite 203
Baltimore, MD 21211
tel: 410/889-1477
fax: 410/889-1480
Richard Willis, Executive Director

In 1988 Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse (MAHA)
spearheaded one of the Nation's most effective gun
control campaigns, which resulted in the ban of
Saturday Night Special handguns in Maryland. In
1993 MAHA kicked off a campaign to enact
comprehensive gun control legislation in Maryland
and to educate the public about the hazards of
handguns. The key element of the campaign's success
has been the creation of a statewide grassroots
coalition known as Standing Together Against the
Gun Epidemic (STAGE). MAHA has brought over 150
religious, community, law enforcement, and medical
provider groups into the STAGE coalition. In 1994,
MAHA and the STAGE coalition convinced the Maryland
General Assembly to pass a ban on assault pistols,
a victory that helped inspire subsequent passage in
Congress of the assault weapons ban.

National Association of Child Advocates

1625 K Street NW.
Suite 510
Washington, DC 20005
tel: 202/289-0777
fax: 202/289-0776
Eve Brooks, President

The National Association of Child Advocates (NACA)
advocates for legislation on issues of importance
to children. It provides technical assistance to
State and community-based child advocacy
organizations fighting ineffective punitive
approaches to violence reduction and promoting
alternatives to incarceration, particularly
prevention, that are more effective. NACA's goals
include lifting all children out of poverty and
ending childhood hunger and homelessness. NACA also
funds a Juvenile Justice Project that is a major
focal point of nationwide information dissemination
on Federal and State juvenile justice and youth
crime prevention policy, and recently cosponsored a
conference, "Framing the Message on Youth and Guns:
A Dialogue on Juvenile Justice," with the Children
and Family Justice Center. 

National Center for Education in Maternal and Child
Health

2000 North 15th Street, Suite 701
Arlington, VA 22201-2617
tel: 703/524-7802
fax: 703/821-2098
Rochelle Mayer, Director

The National Center for Education in Maternal and
Child Health funds the Children's Safety Network
and houses Biblio Alert! Focus on Firearms, a
clearinghouse (703/821-8955, ext. 254) with an
extensive bibliography of journal articles,
reports, books, and other resources.

National Association of Children's Hospitals

401 Wythe Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
tel: 703/684-1355, ext. 265
fax: 703/684-1589
Stacy Collins, Assistant Director, Child Health
 Analysis

At its 1993 annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, the
National Association of Children's Hospitals
(NACHRI) board of trustees issued a statement
calling for actions to reduce children's access to
firearms and the morbidity and mortality resulting
from firearm use. In adopting this position, NACHRI
joins the American Academy of Pediatrics and other
child health advocates in approaching the issue of
gun violence from a public health perspective.

NACHRI advocates for:

o Data collection and trend monitoring in
children's hospitals on firearm injury and death.

o Education strategies involving parents, school
curriculums, and community coalitions.

o Prevention strategies through identification of
children most at risk for firearm violence and
subsequent intervention services.

o Public policy strategies with support for
incremental gun control measures such as the Brady
Bill, and a long-term goal of eliminating private
use of handguns and other highly injurious
firearms.

National Association of State Boards of Education

1012 Cameron Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
tel: 703/684-4000
fax: 703/836-2313
Jane Ascroft, Research Assistant

The National Association of State Boards of
Education is a membership group made up of State
boards of education. The group develops policy
recommendations on a variety of issues affecting
schools, including protecting the right of students
and staff to feel safe and secure in the classroom.
To do so, State boards must assure that a continuum
of sanctions is available for children and youth
who have been disruptive or delinquent. Expulsion
without alternatives is not a solution to youth
violence. Efforts must be made to keep disruptive
or delinquent students, to the maximum extent
possible, in their neighborhood school. At a
minimum, alternative programs with strong academic
and counseling components should be provided.

National Institute of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice
633 Indiana Ave NW.
Washington, DC 20531
tel: 202/514-4787
fax: 202/307-6394
Jeremy Travis, Director

Current National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
violence prevention initiatives include:

o A survey of private firearm ownership. NIJ is
sponsoring a national telephone survey of 3,000
households regarding private firearms ownership and
use. The survey includes such issues as how, where,
when, and why household members acquired handguns;
the types of weapons owned; how weapons are stored,
used, and disposed of; why nonowners do not own
guns; previous victimization and arrest histories;
and demographic characteristics. A final report is
due March 31, 1995. Interim reports will be
requested. 

o A survey of high school youth and weapons. This
2-year project began in January 1995, and includes
a national survey of urban, suburban, and rural
high school students about carrying and access to
weapons in and around school and communities.
Incidents of violence and victimizations, as well
as gang- and drug-related behavior, will be
measured. In addition, school administrators will
be surveyed about their response to violence in
their schools.

o A study of juveniles' involvement in illicit gun
markets. This 2-year project began in November 1994
and is testing the applicability of preventing
juvenile gun violence through problem-solving
policing focused on disrupting the illicit market
in firearms. The project will assist the Boston
Police Department in analyzing that city's juvenile
gun problem and designing an intervention. Efforts
will be made to disrupt the local black market in
firearms and to reduce fear that may drive
juveniles to acquire and carry firearms. The study
will conduct a process and impact evaluation and
will disseminate information on juvenile gun
acquisition and use. 

o A demonstration on youth, firearms, and violence.
NIJ is sponsoring a 2-year demonstration and
evaluation program on youth, firearms, and violence
in St. Louis that began in October 1994. Its
purpose is to reduce morbidity and mortality of
gun-related assaults, the frequency of carrying
guns, and the frequency of assaults. The project
involves the creation of Assault Crisis Teams that
will work in an emergency medical treatment center
serving high-risk juvenile populations. These teams
consist of medical, social service, educational,
and criminal justice personnel.

o A study of youth violence, guns, and links to
illicit drug markets. This 18-month project will
study the recent growth in juvenile homicide rates
by examining, by race and age, data on homicide
rates, drug arrest rates, arrest rates for weapons
offenses, fractions of homicides involving guns,
and other variables that might explain the growth
in juvenile homicide. Findings will test the
theoretical link between participation in drug
markets and gun ownership, and the diffusion of
guns into the community.

o A survey of police departments on violence
prevention programs. NIJ is conducting a telephone
survey of major police departments to collect
information on programs and strategies their
departments are implementing on youth and firearms.
Status reports and findings are being requested.
Delivery date is unknown. 

National School Boards Association

1680 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
tel: 703/838-6722
fax: 703/683-7590
Tom Shannon, Executive Director

The National School Boards Association (NSBA)
recently conducted a survey on gun violence in
schools and produced a booklet entitled Violence in
the Schools: How America's School Boards are
Safeguarding Your Children. The book catalogs
programs by various topics related to school
violence such as alternative school programs, gun-
free school zones, suspension, and safe havens.

National School Safety Center

4165 Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Suite 290
Westlake, CA 91362
tel: 805/373-9977
fax: 805/373-9277
Ron Stevens, Executive Director

Sponsored by the U.S Departments of Education and
Justice, the National School Safety Center focuses
on school crime prevention throughout the country.
Its programs emphasize ridding schools of crime,
violence, and drugs, and improving student
discipline, attendance, achievement, and school
climate. The Center also provides technical
assistance and training programs and publishes a
news journal. 

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention

U.S. Department of Justice
633 Indiana Avenue NW.
Washington, DC 20531
tel: 202/307-5911
fax: 202/514-6382
Shay Bilchik, Administrator

OJJDP is responsible for all issues pertaining to
youth, justice, and delinquency prevention at the
national level. Initiatives undertaken by OJJDP
share a common purpose -- to have a positive and
practical impact on the serious problems affecting
youth today. This goal underlies OJJDP's efforts to
prevent delinquency; improve the effectiveness of
juvenile and family courts, detention, corrections,
and aftercare; provide alternatives to youth at
risk of delinquency; reduce the number of school
dropouts; prevent child abduction, abuse, and
exploitation; and provide appropriate sanctions for
serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. 

OJJDP's youth gun violence initiatives include:

o A survey of juvenile handgun legislation and
development of a model law. As mandated by the
Youth Handgun Safety Act, OJJDP is funding a
project to gather and analyze selected provisions
of States' firearms codes. The project will develop
a body of general information about key provisions
of States' firearms codes (including local
ordinances and relevant court decisions) that can
be used by Congress in reviewing existing and
proposed legislation to reduce juvenile handgun
violence, by Federal agencies in implementing
congressionally mandated firearms provisions, and
by the States in formulating firearms laws and
policies to address their unique objectives and
circumstances. 

o A school violence reduction project. In September
1994, OJJDP began working with the International
Association of Chiefs of Police to identify and
document school violence reduction programs
operating throughout the United States. The project
will focus research on school-based, law
enforcement-based, and community-based programs.
Programs that emphasize reducing the number of
weapons on school property will be of particular
interest. An interim report is due in late November
1994, and the full report is due December 23, 1994.

o A study of gun acquisition and possession. OJJDP
and NIJ jointly funded a recent study of juvenile
possession of firearms drawn from voluntary
questionnaires completed by male students in inner-
city high schools and male juvenile offenders
incarcerated in juvenile correctional facilities.
Issues studied were the number and types of
firearms owned, and where, how, and why they were
obtained. Findings indicated that the challenge of
reducing youth gun violence is not simply getting
guns out of the hands of juveniles, but reducing
motivations for youth to arm themselves. To
accomplish this goal, youth must be convinced that
they can survive in their neighborhoods without
being armed. An NIJ Research in Brief summarizing
these findings was published in December 1993. 

o An interagency demonstration on youth, firearms,
and violence. This project, awarded to Emory
University in Atlanta, Georgia, is being conducted
in collaboration with NIJ, CDC, and OJJDP. The
study will employ a problem-solving approach to
reducing youth gun violence in metropolitan Atlanta
by working with the community and State and local
governments to analyze the magnitude, extent, and
characteristics of youth violence in the area. This
information will then be used to implement a broad-
based strategy to combat youth firearms violence.
The intervention will employ three complementary
tactics to break the link between youth and guns:
(1) demand reduction, through a comprehensive
community education program, (2) supply reduction,
by promoting safe storage of firearms and
interdicting the illegal gun market, and (3)
recidivism reduction, by aggressively
rehabilitating juvenile gun offenders. After
implementation, repeat measures will be obtained to
evaluate and refine the program. 

o Studies of juvenile violence. The 1992 Amendments
to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Act require that four violence studies be conducted
on improving the juvenile justice system and
determining community violence patterns, with a
particular focus on homicides and firearms. The
mandated objectives of the studies are to (1)
identify characteristics and patterns of behavior
of juveniles who are at risk of becoming violent or
victims of homicide, (2) identify indigenous
factors in communities that contribute to violence,
(3) determine the accessibility and use of
firearms, (4) determine the conditions that cause
juvenile violence to increase, (5) identify
existing and new diversion, prevention, and control
programs to ameliorate such conditions, (6) improve
current systems to prevent and control juvenile
violence, and (7) develop a viable plan to help
State and local governments reduce homicides
committed by or against juveniles. 

o Innovative firearms programs. This program will
help State or local jurisdictions develop and
implement projects to prevent the possession and
use of firearms by juveniles and to control illicit
firearm trafficking. Law enforcement, prosecutorial
agencies, schools, community groups, and juvenile
justice system representatives will be likely
participants. The grantees, in cooperation with
BJA, OJJDP, and ATF, will also work with U.S.
Attorneys to develop and implement State and local
projects related to the new Youth Handgun Safety
Act. This law prohibits possession of a handgun or
ammunition by juveniles or private transfer of a
handgun or ammunition to juveniles. 

Pacific Center for Violence Prevention

San Francisco General Hospital
Building 1
San Francisco, CA 94110
tel: 415/821-8209, ext. 3
fax: 415/282-2563
Andrew McGuire, Executive Director

The Pacific Center for Violence Prevention is the
policy branch of the California Wellness
Foundation's $30 million, 5-year Violence
Prevention Initiative. The Pacific Center links
leading organizations with a history of advocating
for social change by blending science, community
action, and politics into sound public health
policy. The Center's goals include shifting
society's definition of youth violence from a law
enforcement model to a public health model,
advocating for public policies that reduce the
consumption of alcohol and other drugs contributing
to youth violence, and advocating for public
policies that reduce firearm injury and death among
youth. To this end, the Center hopes that a
proposition to eliminate preemption in California
will be on the ballot by November 1996. If it
passes, city and local governments will have an
opportunity to pass laws controlling handgun sales
and ownership.

Violence Policy Center

1300 N Street NW.
Washington, DC 20005
tel: 202/822-8200, ext. 3
fax: 202/783-7054
Josh Sugarmann, Executive Director

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) is a national
nonprofit educational foundation that conducts
research on firearms violence in America. VPC works
to develop violence-reduction policies and
proposals. Past studies released by the Center
include Deadly Odds: An Analysis of Handgun
Justifiable Homicides Committed by Women in 1992,
More Gun Dealers Than Gas Stations: A Study of
Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers in America,
Firearms Industry Resource Guide, and Cease Fire: A
Comprehensive Strategy to Reduce Firearms Violence.

*Youth Alive

Summit Medical Center
South Pavilion, Fourth Floor
350 Hawthorne Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
tel: 510/444-6191
fax: 510/444-6195
Deane Calhoun, Director

Youth Alive, a statewide nonprofit agency based in
Oakland, California, provides expert testimony,
presentations, and interagency communication to
policymakers and the media about the incidence,
cost, and impact of youth gun violence. Teens on
Target (TNT) is a grassroots organization in
Oakland, California, established by Youth Alive in
1988 after two junior high school students were
shot in school. TNT was founded on the assumption
that young people can address the problem of gun
violence better than adults. Each year an Oakland
teacher and a San Francisco Trauma Foundation staff
member educate a group of high school students on
gun violence. These students develop their
leadership and public speaking skills, and then
become violence prevention policy advocates, peer
educators, and mentors for middle and elementary
school students.

Youth Alive also runs a program called Caught in
the Crossfire that sends young counselors into
Highland Hospital to persuade teenage gunshot
victims to avoid further violence by not
retaliating. Counselors emphasize that taking
revenge will destroy another life and put friends
at risk of arrest and incarceration.

------------------------------

IV. Bibliography of Research, Evaluation, and
Publications on Youth and Guns

The National Criminal Justice Reference Service's
(NCJRS') Research and Information Center offers
many Federal publications listed in Reducing Youth
Gun Violence. NCJ (National Criminal Justice)
numbers indicate that the document is maintained in
the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse library. The
NCJRS Research and Information Center makes many of
the publications listed in this section available
on microfiche, through paper reproduction, or
through interlibrary loan. 

Advocacy Institute. (1994). Toward a Gun-Safe
Society: Movement Building Strategies, Washington,
DC. NCJ 158057

This report was developed as the result of two
meetings attended by health professionals,
children's advocates, and others. Its major points
include: (1) a gun-safety movement should be
developed; (2) the issues of a gun-safety movement
should be reframed from crime control to the public
health goal of violence prevention; and (3)
concerned gun owners should be separated from
individuals who profit from gun traffic. The report
also discusses developing and disseminating
science-based policy and policy-related research;
developing a media advocacy campaign; building new
alliances; developing a movement infrastructure;
and developing a legislative strategy to define and
mobilize the gun-safety movement.

Allen-Hagen, B., M. Sickmund, and H.N. Snyder.
(1994). Juveniles and Violence: Juvenile Offending
and Victimization. Fact Sheet #19. Washington, DC:
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S.
Department of Justice. NCJ FS009419

This fact sheet documents the increasing use of
firearms in adolescent suicides. In 1991, 1,899
youth ages 15 to 19 committed suicide, a rate of 11
per 100,000 youth in this age group. Between 1979
and 1991, the rate of suicide among youth that age
increased 31 percent, and, in 1989, firearms were
used in 6 out of 10 suicides they committed.

American Academy of Pediatrics. (1989). Report of a
Forum on Firearms and Children. Sponsored by the
American Academy of Pediatrics and the Henry J.
Kaiser Family Foundation, August 30 to September 1,
1989. Elk Grove Village, IL. NCJ 159314

This forum adopted a long-term goal of "getting
guns out of the environments of children." Due to
the way guns are used in the United States,
accomplishing this objective would require banning
handguns, assault rifles, and deadly airguns. A
short-term goal was also adopted to develop safer
guns. A suggestion was made to develop coalitions
of groups including public health, victim's
families, gun control groups, police, and others.

American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on
Adolescence. (1992). Firearms and Adolescents.
Pediatrics 89 (4): 784-787. NCJ 159315 

This article identifies major issues concerning
adolescent firearm use. The authors encourage a
multifaceted approach to adolescent firearm use
that includes more restrictive legislative and
regulatory measures, a health care focus on
creating gun-safe homes, identification and
referral to appropriate services of children at
risk, the development of community-based coalitions
to address the broader needs of public education, a
curriculum in schools that includes violence
prevention lessons for children, and an increase in
research on the precursors and correlates of
firearm injuries and deaths among children and
adolescents. 

Firearm morbidity and mortality, which stem largely
from homicide and suicide, are a major adolescent
health problem as well as a social problem. The
scope of the problem involves all of American
society. Pediatricians and other adolescent health
care providers can make a critical contribution to
specific intervention and prevention strategies.

Firearms play a major role in childhood morbidity
and mortality in the United States, particularly
among adolescents. Reducing injuries and deaths
from firearms is a critical priority for the health
of adolescents. Eighty percent of firearm deaths
occur in children ages 10 to 19. Firearms are
involved in 70 percent of teen homicides and 63
percent of teen suicides, and are the second
leading cause of death among all teenagers ages 15
to 19. Risk factors for firearm death seem related
to age as rates of firearm violence peak in late
adolescence (15 to 24 years old) and decrease in
young adulthood (25 to 34 years old). Special
characteristics of adolescent development must be
considered in designing effective countermeasures
to prevent injury and death.

American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Injury
and Poison Prevention. (1992). Firearm Injuries
Affecting the Pediatric Population. Pediatrics
89(4): 788-790. NCJ 159316

This article proposes prevention strategies in the
areas of firearm design, regulation, product
liability actions, public and parent education, and
legislative measures.

American Psychological Association, Commission on
Violence and Youth. (1993). Violence and Youth:
Psychology's Response. Washington, DC. NCJ 147390

The commission recommended many specific steps to
reduce and prevent youth violence that could be
taken by American Psychological Association (APA)
members and concerned parents, health care
providers, educators, State and local agencies, the
armed services, the Federal Communications
Commission, and the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

The commission's research and public policy
recommendations were to:

o Offer psychological health services to young
perpetrators and victims and witnesses of violence.

o Use education programs to reduce prejudice and
hostility that lead to hate crimes and violence
against social groups.

o Involve community members in designing programs
and scientific approaches to prevent violence.

o Limit access to firearms by children and youth
and teach them how to prevent firearm violence.

o Reduce involvement with alcohol and drugs.

Beginning in 1985, and particularly in 1988, there
was a steady growth in the use of guns by
juveniles. There was no corresponding upward trend,
however, in nongun homicides committed by this age
group.

The Commission also concluded that:

o The availability of guns makes youth violence
more lethal. 

o Little research has been done to determine why
young people carry guns. Handguns are more likely
to be owned by socially deviant youth than by their
more socially adjusted peers, even in those
sections of the country in which firearms for
recreation and hunting are fairly common.

o When youth who are already predisposed to
violence have easy access to guns, they may be more
likely to become violent. 

o Although youth can easily obtain firearms, and
see them used frequently in films and on television
as a method of solving problems, few violence
prevention programs for youth focus specifically on
preventing violence with guns. 

o Firearms are more prevalent around illicit drugs.

The general public is becoming more concerned about
young people committing homicide with guns because
they perceive that young people are less likely to
exercise the necessary restraint in handling
dangerous weapons, particularly when they are
rapid-fire assault weapons. 

Anderson, Elijah. (1994). The Code of The Streets:
How the Inner-City Environment Fosters A Need for
Self-Respect and Self-Image Based on Violence. The
Atlantic Monthly, May. NCJ 159317

Becker, T.M., L. Olson, and J. Vick. (1993).
Children and Firearms: A Gunshot Injury Prevention
Program In New Mexico. American Journal of Public
Health 83 (2): 282-283. NCJ 159318

Health professionals should become involved in gun-
safety counseling, education programs, and
legislative efforts to reduce the number of loaded
firearms in the home. Cooperative efforts should
also be organized at the State or regional level.

Blackman, Paul H. (1994). Children and Guns: The
NRA's Perception of the Problem and Its Policy
Implications. Paper presented at the American
Society of Criminology, Miami, Florida, November
9-12, 1994. NCJ 159319

This paper summarizes the National Rifle
Association's (NRA's) perception of issues
concerning children and guns. NRA favors,
particularly at the State level, regulations
governing access and misuse of firearms by minors,
as long as these regulations do not impinge on
adult rights. This paper argues that there is no
relationship between ordinary gun ownership and
recent increases in gun-related violence involving
children and teenagers. It further states that gun
ownership by adults and the introduction of their
children to gun culture appears to reduce problems
associated with teenage violence and describes
programs that introduce youth to legal gun use,
such as shooting sports.

Blumstein, A. (1994). Youth Violence, Guns, and the
Illicit-Drug Industry. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie
Mellon University. NCJ 157411 

This age-specific analysis shows the increasing
incidence of firearm homicides among young persons.
The author develops a "diffusion" hypothesis to
explain the increase. He reasons that as juveniles
became involved in the drug trade, they acquire
firearms because of the dangerousness of the
enterprise. In turn, other youngsters obtain
firearms for protection. The result is that many
disputes that typically end in fist fights now
become shootings due to the presence of guns. This
increased violence may also be exacerbated by high
levels of poverty, high rates of single-parent
households, educational failures, and a widespread
sense of economic hopelessness.

One solution to this problem would be to confiscate
guns juveniles carry on the street. Greater
investment in drug treatment, more effective
prevention, or some other means of providing drugs
to certified addicts would diminish the demand and
volume of drugs. Also to be considered is the large
number of people who see no hope for themselves in
legitimate activities of society.

Boston Commission Survey of Weapons-Carrying: The
Boston Commission on Safe Public Schools. (1983).
Making Our Schools Safe for Learning. NCJ 093633

Brent, D.A., J.A. Perper, and C. Allman. (1987).
Alcohol, Firearms, and Suicide Among Youth:
Temporal Trends in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
1960-1983. Journal of the American Medical
Association 275: 3369-3372. NCJ 159320

This study demonstrates that the presence of
firearms in the home is associated with increased
risk of adolescent suicides; it concludes that
physicians should recommend that firearms be
removed from the homes of at-risk adolescents.

Brewer, D., J.D. Hawkins, R.F. Catalano, and H.J.
Neckerman. (1994). Review of Prevention Programs:
Community Laws and Policies Related to Weapons.
Prevention of Serious, Violent and Chronic Juvenile
Offending: A Review of Evaluations of Selected
Strategies in Childhood, Adolescence and the
Community. Seattle, WA: Developmental Research and
Programs, Inc. NCJ 159321

Various laws, regulations, and policies have been
enacted by communities to reduce firearm violence,
including: restrictions on the sale, purchase, and
transfer of guns; regulations on the place and
manner of carrying firearms; mandatory sentencing
laws for felonies involving firearms; mandatory
firearm training for gun owners; and the use of
metal detectors in schools. The risk factors of
firearm availability and norms tolerant of crime as
well as the protective factors of healthy beliefs
and clear standards for behavior are addressed.

The aim of restrictions on the sale, purchase, and
transfer of guns is to reduce the number of guns
that could be used by potential offenders. Several
cities have enacted restrictive regulations on the
sale, purchase, and transfer of handguns within
city limits. Washington, D.C., and Morton Grove,
Illinois, are two examples.

An evaluation of the District of Columbia law
suggested that the law reduced firearm homicides
over an 11-year period. A comparison of firearms
regulation in Seattle and Vancouver also suggested
that laws restricting the sale and purchase of
handguns prevented violent gun-related crime.
Illinois did not show any reliable evidence of
significant preventive effects on reported
burglaries or gun-related crime, perhaps due to
weak enforcement.

Regulations on the place and manner of carrying
firearms have been enacted by State and local
governments to reduce the number of persons who
carry and use firearms in public. Three laws
regulating the place and manner of carrying
firearms were evaluated. Overall, evidence of these
laws' effectiveness is slight and mixed. The
evaluations probably do not reflect the preventive
potential of laws regulating place and manner of
carrying firearms because important enforcement may
have been lacking for two of the three laws.

Mandatory sentencing laws for felonies involving
firearms have been enacted at both the Federal and
State levels. These laws impose stronger sentences
for offenders who use or carry a firearm during the
commission of a felony. Data suggest that mandatory
sentencing laws for crimes involving firearms
prevent firearm homicides.

Two firearm training programs and one mandatory gun
ownership law were evaluated. The training programs
were designed to deter crime by increasing the
number of citizens who know how to use guns
properly. The second law required all homes to own
a gun. None of the evaluations of firearm training
programs or the mandatory gun ownership law
demonstrated any significant intervention effects
on crime or violence. 

Metal detector programs usually necessitate
security personnel or school staff searching some
or all students for weapons. These programs may
have a site-specific impact on weapon availability,
which may decrease the lethality of interpersonal
conflicts at such sites. 

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1992). A National
Report: Drugs, Crime, and the Justice System.
Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics,
Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of
Justice. NCJ 133652

Assailants in drug-related homicides in New York
City in 1984 were likely to have known their
victims and to have used handguns to kill them.

Butterfield, G.E., and J.L. Arnette (Editors).
(1993). Weapons in Schools. NSSC Resource Paper.
Sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.
Malibu, CA: National School Safety Center. NCJ
121807

This paper describes the nature and extent of the
problems associated with weapons in schools and
discusses strategies for dealing with these
problems.

Effective strategies to deter and prevent weapons
in school include training educators in weapon
identification and detection, providing adequate
supervision both in and outside of the classroom,
teaching prosocial skills within the curriculum to
promote a positive campus climate, and fostering
interpersonal success in conflict resolution. Peer
assistance programs have contributed to the
reduction of assaults and cases of campus
intimidation. Removing serious offenders from
regular schools and providing them with a more
secure educational placement is also effective.
Keeping weapons off campus makes a safer and more
productive environment for all children.

Other strategies for keeping weapons out of schools
were discussed. One of the most effective
intervention tactics was to encourage students to
report weapon-carrying classmates to teachers or
administrators. Other intervention strategies
included the use of metal detectors and unannounced
sweeps and searches of lockers. Expulsion,
alternative placements, and enhanced security are
other alternatives. The paper also discussed
strategies to prevent weapons from entering schools
in the first place. The author discussed techniques
to foster positive school climates.

School districts should coordinate a local school
security committee or task force composed of school
officials, law enforcers, other youth-service
providers, and parents and students, to plan and
regularly update school safety and security
measures. School site administrators must acquire
"crime resistance savvy" and take greater
responsibility in working with the school board and
district to implement site security programs. Other
strategies are also discussed.

School officials are concerned with all weapons.
Knives, guns, and explosive devices present the
greatest threat to school safety. Of these three,
firearms pose the greatest risk to students and
school staff.

Callahan, C.M., and F.P. Rivera. (1992). Urban High
School Youth and Handguns: A School-Based Survey.
Journal of the American Medical Association 267
(22): 3038-3042.NCJ 143422

This study documents self-reported handgun access
and ownership among high school students in
Seattle, Washington. The authors' research
objective was to determine the prevalence of
handgun ownership among urban high school youth and
to investigate associations with socioeconomic
status, ethnicity, and deviance. Thirty-four
percent of the students reported easy access to
handguns (47 percent of males, 22 percent of
females) and 6.4 percent reported owning a handgun
(11.4 percent of males, 1.55 percent of females).

Centers for Disease Control. (1991). Weapon
Carrying Among High School Students: United States,
1990. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 40
(40): 681-684.NCJ 144164

This study examined the incidence and prevalence of
self-reported weapon carrying among high school
students (grades 9 to 12) in the United States
during 1990. Nearly 20 percent of surveyed students
had carried a weapon at least once during the
previous 30-day period (31.5 percent of males and
8.1 percent of females). To achieve the greatest
reduction in the number of weapon-carrying youth,
CDC suggests that efforts be directed at frequent
weapon carriers and their peers and families. The
report argues that programs should be implemented
to address the actual or perceived risk of
victimization.

The 1990 Youth Risk Behavior Survey baseline data
indicate that 71 weapon-carrying episodes occurred
per 100 students during the 30 days preceding the
survey. To achieve the year 2000 objective, the
incidence rate must be reduced to 57 episodes per
month. 

Centers for Disease Control (1993). Violence-
Related Attitudes and Behaviors of High School
Students -- New York City, 1992. Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report 42 (40). NCJ 147422

During the 1991-92 school year, 36.1 percent of all
New York City public school students in grades 9 to
12 who were surveyed reported being threatened with
physical harm. Twenty-one percent of students
reported carrying a weapon such as a gun, knife, or
club 1 or more days during the 30 days preceding
the survey, with 7 percent reporting a handgun.

Cheatwood, D., and K. Block. (1990). Black
Homicides in Baltimore, 1974-1986: Age, Gender and
Weapon Use Change. Criminal Justice Review 15:
192-207. NCJ 159322

Collison, B.B., S. Bowden, M. Patterson, J. Snyder,
et al. (1987). After the Shooting Stops. Special
Issue: Counseling and Violence. Journal of
Counseling and Development 65 (7): 389-390. NCJ
110003

This article examines the impact of a fatal
shooting spree on parents, students, and teachers
in a small community school.

Christoffel, K.K. (1991). Toward Reducing Pediatric
Injuries From Firearms: Charting Legislative and
Regulatory Course. Pediatrics 88 (2): 294-305. NCJ
145350

Pediatricians in the United States are focusing
increasing attention on the problem of injuries
from firearms in children and adolescents. They are
motivated by their alarm at the degree to which the
epidemic of injuries from firearms is intruding
into the child and adolescent populations and by a
sense that now is the time to undertake initiatives
to reduce the frequency of injuries and deaths
caused by firearms. Pediatricians have important
roles in this process, including that of educators
of parents, expert consultants in engineering
efforts, and advocates for children in the
political process.

Some of the approaches to reduce pediatric injuries
from firearms include enforcing existing laws,
developing regulation under existing laws, holding
owners liable for child gun use and resulting
injuries, requiring gun safety education in
schools, increasing sales taxes on firearms and
ammunition, requiring firearm registration and
licensure, performing background checks, modifying
ammunition, modifying engineering design of guns,
banning assault weapons ban, banning handguns where
there are children, banning handguns in general,
regulating long gun ownership and use, regulating
toy gun construction, banning plastic handguns and
other toy-like guns, developing legislation to
reduce the deadliness of nonpowder firearms, and
passing omnibus child firearm safety legislation.

Cook, Philip (1990). The Effect of Gun Availability
on Violent Crime Patterns. Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science. (May 1981)
NCJ 079100; and in Federal Regulation of Firearms.
(May 1982). Report prepared by Congressional
Research Service for the U.S. Senate Judiciary
Committee. U.S. Government Printing Office, NCJ
089777; and in Weiner, N.A., M.A. Zahn, and R.J.
Sagi, eds. (1990). Violence: Patterns, Causes,
Public Policy. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.

Dougherty, D., J. Eden, K.B. Kemp, K. Metcalf, K.
Rowe, K.G. Strobel, and A. Solarz. (1992).
Adolescents' Health: A Journal of School Health 62
(5): 167-1674. NCJ 145348

This article reports findings and recommendations
from an assessment by the U.S. Congress' Office of
Technology Assessment of adolescents' access to
firearms.

Duker, L. (1994). With assistance from E. Bhatiia,
D. Doherty, L. Gill, and C. Taylor. Gun Dealers,
USA (14). NCJ 149391

This guide gives the reader information on gun
dealers licensed in their State, county, and city.
Contents include: (1) Where do adolescents who
carry and use guns get them? (2) How many licensed
gun dealers are in my city, county, or State? (3)
Can I get the names, addresses, and phone numbers
of licensed gun dealers in my city, county, or
State? (4) How many gun stores are in my city,
county, or State? (5) How many and what types of
guns do licensed gun dealers in my city, county, or
State sell? (6) Does my State have any laws or
regulations regarding gun dealers? (7) What are
preemption laws? If my State has one, how will it
affect public policy approaches to restricting
children's and adolescents' access to firearms in
my area? (8) Is my State government currently
considering any legislative or regulatory
restrictions on gun dealers? and (9) Is my local
government currently considering any regulations
regarding gun dealers? This report also includes
State-by-State data on the geographical
distribution, concentration, and regulation of gun
dealers. 

Edelman, Marian Wright. (1994). Testimony before
the House Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal
Justice, House Judiciary Committee. Hearing on the
Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Reform Act.
(H.R. 3315). NCJ 159323

The author, Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's
Defense Fund, requests that the House Judiciary
Committee include prevention in its final crime
bill, including funding for programs that offer
youth safe and positive alternatives to the streets
and develop restrictions on the private
accessibility of nonsporting firearms. She
discusses the incidence rate of gun murders and
notes that an American child is killed with a gun
every 2 hours, the equivalent of a classroom of
children every 2 days. She notes that there are
five nonfatal gunshot injuries for every fatal
injury. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of children
are scarred psychologically and emotionally by the
pervasive violence around them. 

Elliott, Delbert S. (1994). Youth Violence: An
Overview. Boulder, CO: Center for the Study and
Prevention of Violence, University of Colorado. NCJ
152908

The problem with youth violence in the 1990's is a
lethality caused by juveniles' increased use of
handguns. Not much is known about why today's youth
are carrying guns. It could be to show off, to
ensure respect and acquiescence from others, or for
self- defense. It also may be a response to the
perception that public authorities cannot protect
youth or maintain order in high-crime
neighborhoods. Dropouts, drug dealers, and those
individuals with a prior record of violent behavior
are more likely to own a gun than are other
adolescents. The vast majority of guns used in
crimes are obtained illegally by theft or in some
other way. Little good research has been conducted
on the effectiveness of gun control policies. There
is some evidence, however, that restrictive handgun
laws and mandatory sentences for firearm offenses
work.

Fagan, Jeffrey. (forthcoming). What Do We Know
About Gun Use Among Adolescents? Boulder, CO:
Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence,
University of Colorado.

Based on gang literature, homicide data, and his
own research on youth violence, the author uses a
nuclear deterrent strategy to describe the "ecology
of danger" that pervades the lives of many young
people who carry guns. The continuous sense of
danger affects how young people think about events
as well as their decision making and behavior.
Cultural dynamics, influenced by the gun trade,
have popularized guns and made backing down from
arguments and losing face difficult for kids. As a
solution to these two dynamics, interventions
should focus on behavioral change and building an
ecology of safety.

Fingerhut, L.A., D.D. Ingram, and J.J. Feldman.
(1992a). Homicide Among Black Teenage Males in
Metropolitan Counties: Comparison of Death Rates in
Two Periods, 1983 Through 1985 and 1987 Through
1989. Journal of the American Medical Association
267 (22): 3054- 3058. NCJ 143424. Also in
Fingerhut, L.A., D.D. Ingram, and J.J. Feldman.
Forum on Youth Violence in Minority Communities:
Setting the Agenda for Prevention. (1991). Report
of the working group on weapons and minority youth
violence. Public Health Reports 106 (3): 254-258.

The authors suggest priority areas for intervention
at the community level, including developing
community consensus on the use of and possession of
weapons; modifying the environment to reduce
opportunities for weapon-associated violence;
requiring a firearm safety course; banning the
manufacture, sale, and importation of certain types
of weapons; educating the community about the
product liability litigation against gun
manufacturers; and improving enforcement of laws
against illegal gun trafficking. They also
recommend priority areas for evaluation research.

Fingerhut, L.A., D.D. Ingram, and J.J. Feldman.
(1992b). Firearm and Nonfirearm Homicide Among
Persons 15 through 19 Years of Age. Journal of the
American Medical Association, 267 (22), 3048-3053.
NCJ 143423

The 1989 firearm homicide rate in metropolitan
counties was nearly five times the rate in
nonmetropolitan counties. Firearm homicide rates
were highest in core metropolitan counties (27.7
per 100,000 people) compared to nonmetropolitan
counties (2.9 per 100,000 people). Firearm homicide
rates were highest for black males and lowest for
white females in all five urbanization strata for
1979 through 1989. 

Fingerhut, L.A., J.C. Kleinman, E. Godfrey, and H.
Rosenberg. (1991). Firearm Mortality Among
Children, Youth, and Young Adults 1-34 Years of
Age, Trends and Current Status: United States 1979-
88. Monthly Vital Statistics Report 39.
Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health
Statistics. NCJ 144116

Examines racial and gender differences in homicide
and suicide associated with firearms among males
ages 15 to 34. 

Heide, K.M. (1993). Weapons Used by Juveniles and
Adults to Kill Parents. Behavioral Science and the
Law 11 (4): 397-406. NCJ 147141

Henkoff, R. (1992). Kids Are Killing, Dying,
Bleeding. Fortune 126 (3): 62-69. NCJ 159324

This article reports a nonexperimental exploration
of youth homicide, abuse, and suicide. The author
suggests several strategies to reducing violence,
including programs to help parents with parenting
skills, programs that teach children how to manage
anger nonviolently, and policies that increase gun
control.

Howell, J.C. (1994). Recent Gang Research: Program
and Policy Implications. Crime and Delinquency 40
(4). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. NCJ
151535

The violent youth gang problem is growing. Gang
members are committing more violent offenses,
resulting in more serious injuries. Gang members
are using more lethal weapons. It is unclear if the
growth in urban violence is due to gangs, law-
violating youth groups, or nongang youths. Further
research is needed to determine what part the truly
violent gangs have played in increased urban
violence. 

Huizinga, David et al. (1994). Urban Delinquency
and Substance Abuse. Washington, DC: Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office
of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
NCJ 143454 

There is a strong relationship between owning
illegal guns and delinquency and drug use. Seventy-
four percent of illegal gun owners commit street
crimes, 24 percent commit gun crimes, and 41
percent use drugs. Male adolescents who own legal
guns have much lower rates of delinquency and drug
use and are even slightly less delinquent than
nonowners of guns. For legal gun owners,
socialization appears to take place in the family.
For illegal gun owners, it seems to take place on
the street.

Interdepartmental Working Group. (1994). Violence:
Report to the President and Domestic Policy
Council. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services. NCJ 159325

The United States has never attempted to implement
a comprehensive approach to preventing firearm
injuries. Federal laws regulating firearms are
piecemeal, underenforced, and do not treat firearms
as the dangerous consumer products they are.
Rational public policy, well-executed science, and
effective enforcement can help end this epidemic.

Jones, M.A., and B. Krisberg. (1994). Images and
Reality: Juvenile Crime, Youth Violence and Public
Policy. San Francisco, CA: National Council on
Crime and Delinquency. NCJ 149440

Over the last decade, the most important factor in
the increase in youth violence in general and
juvenile homicide specifically is the availability
of firearms. Teenage boys in all racial and ethnic
groups are more likely to die from gunshot wounds
than from all natural causes combined. Both the
availability and increasing lethality of firearms
contributes to this violence. 

Kellermann, Arthur. (1993). Gun Ownership as a Risk
Factor for Homicide in the Home. New England
Journal of Medicine 329 (15). NCJ 146835 

This study found that in King County, Washington,
guns kept at home were involved in the death of a
household member 185 times more often than they
were involved in the death of a stranger. These
deaths included suicides, homicides, and
unintentional fatal shootings. 

Kennedy, David M. (1994). Can We Keep Guns Away
From Kids? Working Paper 94-05-12, John F. Kennedy
School of Government, Harvard University:
Cambridge, MA. NCJ 152025

Market disruption approaches successfully utilized
in fighting street drug markets may be useful in
closing down illegal gun markets, particularly
youth gun markets. These approaches are designed to
interfere with street trafficking to the point that
the drug trade is no longer able to survive. Police
used market disruption techniques to cripple a
street crack operation in Tampa, Florida. The
disruption made it hard for buyers to find sellers
as the police used heavy enforcement to keep the
dealers moving around. The policy used community
allies to report new dealing sites, made buyers
feel vulnerable by publicizing reverse stings in
which police posed as dealers and arrested buyers,
and interfered with business by loitering around
dealing sites. A trial using similar techniques
applied to gun violence is currently underway in
Boston. 

Some youth carry guns for self-protection. These
youth might be more amenable to putting away their
guns if they felt safer. Reducing the availability
of firearms might make violent incidents less
deadly. Gun strategies and fear-reduction
strategies would reinforce each other. A
comprehensive strategy is needed to solve the gun,
youth, and fear problem, including changes in
juveniles' living environments.

Kleck, G. (1991). Point Blank: Guns and Violence in
America. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. NCJ
159326

Koop, C.E., and G.D. Lundberg. (1992). Violence in
America: A Public Health Emergency. Journal of the
American Medical Association 267: 3075-3076. NCJ
159327

This article discusses the need for a public
health/medical approach to the problem of violence.
The authors compare the responsibilities associated
with owning and using a firearm to those associated
with owning and using a motor vehicle, and suggest
recommendations for action. 

Lacerva, V. (1990). Let Peace Begin With Us: The
Problem of Violence in New Mexico. Santa Fe, NM:
New Mexico Department of Health. NCJ 159328

Included in this report on violence in New Mexico
are issues such as homicide, assault, suicide,
drugs, violence, and firearms.

Lawyers Committee on Violence. (1994). Gun Violence
in New York City: Problems and Solutions. New York,
NY: Lawyer's Committee on Violence, Inc. NCJ 159329

To reduce the number of guns already in
circulation, several alternatives are proposed. The
authors argue that penalties for carrying firearms
should include fines and jail time without
probation. They also suggest that landlords be
required to prohibit firearms on the premises of
their buildings for any period of time, no matter
how brief. The authors advocate increased
enforcement of existing laws in all public places
and suggest that metal detectors be installed in
more areas. Despite their popularity, the authors
denounce programs that offer incentives to people
who trade guns for goods (e.g. money, sports
tickets) because they create the impression that
illegal gun ownership is acceptable. The authors
propose that legal burdens associated with gun
violence fall not only on gun users, but also on
gun owners, sellers and suppliers, manufacturers,
and the shooters' parents if they are minors. The
authors discuss detailed accounts of court cases to
support the legality of their proposals.

Lee, R.K., and J.J. Sacks. (1990). Latchkey
Children and Guns at Home. Journal of the American
Medical Association 264: 2210. NCJ 159330

Lizotte, A.J., J.M. Tesoriero, T.P. Thornberry, and
M.D. Krohn. (1994). Patterns of Adolescent Firearms
Ownership and Use. Justice Quarterly (11) 1. NCJ
150231

The authors report on the Rochester Youth
Development Study, in which 10 percent of the 9th-
and 10th-grade boys in Rochester public schools
reported owning a firearm and 7.5 percent reported
carrying them regularly. Factors leading to sport
gun ownership are different from those leading to
protective gun ownership. Socialization into sport
gun use originates from the family. Socialization
into protective gun use originates from peer
influences outside the home. Youth who use guns for
protection have significantly higher levels of
delinquent behavior than youth who own guns for
sport.

Lofton, C., D. McDowall, B. Wierseman, T.J. Cottey.
(1991). Effects of Restrictive Licensing of
Handguns on Homicide and Suicide in the District of
Columbia. New England Journal of Medicine 325 (23):
1615-1620. NCJ 133649

This evaluation of District of Columbia law banning
the purchase, sale, transfer, or possession of
handguns by civilians suggests that, on average, 47
deaths have been prevented each year since the
law's implementation.

Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. (1993). Prepared
for the Harvard School of Public Health Under a
Grant from the Joyce Foundation: A Survey of
Experiences, Perceptions and Apprehensions About
Guns Among Young People in America. New York, NY:
Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., and LH Research,
Inc. NCJ 144016

This study examines the results of two national
polls of adults' and children's attitudes toward
and experiences with guns. The polls underscored
the deep fears and concerns that millions of
Americans have about gun violence and their desire
to do something about the epidemic. The first poll
revealed that 78 percent of adults believe that
concerns over physical safety change the lives of
today's children, and that 77 percent believe that
the prevalence of guns endangers the lives of young
people. The second poll showed that 59 percent of
the 2,508 children surveyed in grades 6 to 12 said
that they "could get a handgun if they wanted,"
that 35 percent fear their lives will be cut short
by gun violence, and that 15 percent had carried a
handgun in the previous month.

May, John P. (1995). Prior Nonfatal Firearm
Injuries In Detainees of a Large Urban Jail.
Presentation to Seventh National Conference on
Health Care for the Poor and Underserved,
Nashville, Tennessee. For subsequent publication in
the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and
Underserved 6 (3). NCJ 159331

Detainees of large urban jails have many health
risks including injuries related to violence and
firearms. A survey of 582 randomly selected
detainees entering the Cook County Department of
Corrections in Chicago, Illinois, during the summer
of 1994 found that 51 percent had previously
entered hospitals for violence-related injuries and
that 26 percent were survivors of gun shot wounds.
Patterns of firearm injuries were different from
patterns of violence affecting the general
population. Factors common to those with prior
firearm injuries included witnessing a shooting at
an early age, tattoos, previous sexually
transmitted diseases, easy access to a
semiautomatic weapon, and prior incarceration. The
author suggests the development of
multidisciplinary strategies to reduce risks of
violence.

McCarney, W.G. (1988). Crack Cocaine, Guns and
Youth: An Extremely Lethal Mixture. Lay Panel
Magazine 20: 6-8. NCJ 113884

McDowall, D. (1991). Firearm Availability and
Homicide Rates In Detroit, 1951-1986. Social Forces
69 (4): 1085-1101. NCJ 136556

This study examined the relationship between
firearm availability and homicide rates in Detroit,
Michigan. The question of whether firearm
availability may increase the use of guns in crimes
was also a focus.

In this study, gun density influenced homicides.
Estimates indicated that changes in firearm
availability altered the risk of homicide, but
increases in gun density could not completely
account for Detroit's high murder rate. Regression
analysis was carried out using the Detroit homicide
rate.

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court
Judges. (1994). Where We Stand: An Action Plan for
Dealing with Violent Juvenile Crime. Reno, NV:
Midby-Byron National Center for Judicial Education.
NCJ 149454

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court
Judges believes that the following actions should
be implemented by State and local governments with
financial, technical, and research assistance from
the State and Federal levels: assuring that
juvenile courts can hold violent juvenile offenders
fully accountable for their crimes; providing
adequate resources to the juvenile courts to
conduct thorough assessments of juveniles; and
developing individualized dispositions for
juveniles. Other actions include renewing the
commitment to rehabilitation of violent juvenile
offenders consistent with public safety and
providing legislation -- with rational guidelines
for the protection of public safety and individual
rights under which State and local juvenile judges
can transfer violent juvenile offenders to adult
criminal courts. 

Northrop, D., and K. Hamrick. (1990). Background
paper prepared for the Forum on Youth Violence in
Minority Communities: Setting the Agenda for
Prevention. Atlanta, Georgia, December 10-12, 1990.
Weapons and Minority Youth Violence. Newton, MA:
Education Department Center. NCJ 159332

This paper reviewed existing and potential
strategies for reducing the misuse of weapons by
American youth. The authors cite three issues that
need to be addressed before effective interventions
can be implemented in this area. The first issue
was the inadequacy of research information on which
to base firearms policy and practice. The authors
recommend priorities for research, which include
studies of the magnitude, characteristics, and cost
of the morbidity and disability caused by firearms
and other weapons; investigations as to the number,
type, and distribution of firearms and other
weapons in the United States; epidemiological
studies of risks of injuries associated with
firearms possession; and evaluation of regulations
and other interventions that have been attempted in
the area of firearm injury prevention. Second,
there is a need for more discussion of how local
communities can help prevent firearm injuries in
minority youth. Third, there are ethical and
philosophical issues that need to be resolved with
respect to certain school-based interventions, such
as the use of metal detectors, locker searches, and
canine searches of properties, that are seen by
some to conflict with students' civil liberties.
The authors conclude that interventions that target
the weapons themselves are more likely to produce
immediate effects than are socioeconomic factors.
They believe, however, that long-term solutions
must address such factors as poverty and economic
disparity.

Pacific Center for Violence Prevention. (1994).
Preventing Youth Violence: Reducing Access to
Firearms. Policy paper funded by The California
Wellness Foundation. San Francisco, CA: Pacific
Center for Violence Prevention. NCJ 158365

The increased rate of violent youth crime in the
decade is parallel to a period of decreased
allocation of resources for youth. Some experts see
increased violence to be associated with this
resource allocation for young people. The public
health model states that decreasing handgun
availability is the most effective means of
decreasing firearm-related injury and death, and
that all assault weapons should be permanently
banned. Communities should address local firearm
issues by considering restrictions on ammunition
availability, shifting the cost of firearm injury
to manufacturers, and placing firearms under a
regulatory agency. There is a need to know more
about nonfatal assaults, which are estimated to
occur 100 times more often than homicides. More
money is spent on newspaper advertisements about
gun control than on research about firearms and
violence. The growth in the manufacturing of
firearms can be attributed to protectionist
legislation, lax or nonexistent regulation, and
minimal industry oversight.

Low prices, new designs, and ready availability
contribute to youth's possession of firearms. Two
psychosocial factors contributing to violence are
the youth's incompetence -- an inability to
understand the nature of one's acts -- and
desensitization to the quality of one's acts
through watching media.

Price, J.H., S.M. Desmond, and D. Smith. (1991). A
Preliminary Investigation of Inner City
Adolescents' Perceptions of Guns. Journal of School
Health 61 (6): 255-259.NCJ 159333

The authors suggest that schools and health
educators become more aware and involved in the
prevention of gun violence.

Roth, Jeffrey A. (1994). Firearms and Violence.
National Institute of Justice Research in Brief.
Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice,
Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of
Justice. NCJ 145533

Most murders involve firearms, and young minority
men are at especially high risk of being murdered
with a gun. Innovations in laws, law enforcement,
public education, and technology all show promise
of reducing gun murders by selectively making
firearms less available to persons likely to use
them. It is also important to make guns less
accessible in situations where violence is likely
to occur, or make guns less lethal. Evaluations are
needed to test the effectiveness of these
innovations.

Ruttenberg, H. (1994). The Limited Promise of
Public Health Methodologies to Prevent Youth
Violence. The Yale Law Journal 103: 1885. NCJ
159334

This article notes that although the public health
approach successfully changed the smoking behavior
of the middle class, it did not change the smoking
behavior of the lower class. Thus, the public
health approach also may not change violent
behavior in the lower class.

Although the public health approach may reduce the
lethality of violence, there is a question as to
whether this approach will reduce the incidence of
violence. To prevent youth violence, we instead
need a national will to improve the circumstances
of children, youth, and young adults. This
commitment involves making fundamental changes in
society. 

Shapiro, J.P., and B.M. Burkey. (1993). Final
Report on a Project Performed for the Gun Safety
Institute by Child Guidance Center of Greater
Cleveland. Development of the Gun-Proneness
Questionnaire: A Measure of Attitudes Toward Guns
and Violence Among Urban Youth. Cleveland, OH: The
Gun Safety Institute. NCJ 159335

The authors developed and tested a gun proneness
questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to be
used to assess attitudes on gun possession so that
a curriculum can be developed that effectively
targets these attitudes.

Shapiro, J.P., R.L. Dorman, B.M. Burkey, C.J.
Welker. (Undated). Attitudes Toward Guns and
Violence in Third- through Twelfth-grade Youth.
Cleveland, OH: The Guidance Center.NCJ 159336

To decrease young people's attraction to guns and
violence, interventions should have an empirical
basis and address the psychosocial factors that
determine violence-related attitudes in youth.

Handguns and hunting rifles appear not to have the
same meaning for young people. Rifles seem to be
mostly associated with hunting, and this
relationship is only weakly linked to disposition
toward interhuman violence. Handguns, however, seem
to be clearly associated with a willingness to hurt
people. Prevention programs do not need to make a
priority of discouraging youth's interest in rifles
or hunting. Violence-prone attitudes seem to
increase between fifth and sixth grades and then
stabilize. Prevention programs should be aimed at
such ages. 

Interventions need to directly address the
psychosocial factors that determine whether youth
are violence-prone or nonviolent. Interventions
need to identify, address, and change the
attitudes, motives, and beliefs that are conducive
to violent behavior. Youth responding aggressively
to shame, finding guns exciting, feeling
comfortable with aggression, and believing that
guns bring power and safety are most likely to
engage in gun violence. Interventions that change
these attitudes may reduce violent behavior and
increase the safety of young people. 

Sheley, J.F., and J.D. Wright. (1993). Gun
Acquisition and Possession in Selected Juvenile
Samples. Washington, DC: National Institute of
Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S.
Department of Justice. NCJ 145326

This study focused on serious juvenile offenders
and students from schools in high-risk areas and
thus is not generalizable to the general
population. The main reason given for owning or
carrying a gun was self-protection. Eighty-three
percent of inmates and students surveyed possessed
guns. Fifty-five percent of inmates carried guns
all or most of the time in the years immediately
preceding their incarceration; 12 percent of
students did so and another 23 percent carried guns
now and then. The firearms of choice were high-
quality, powerful revolvers, closely followed by
automatic and semiautomatic handguns and then
shotguns. Most of the youth surveyed thought it
would be easy to acquire a gun, most likely by
borrowing it from someone they knew; inmates,
however, indicated that they could get a gun "off
the streets." Drug use was moderately related to
gun activity. The fundamental policy problem
involves convincing youths that they can survive in
their neighborhoods without being armed. The
authors recommend that change must not be directed
toward the individual, but toward the family,
community, and society. The authors emphasize
structural factors -- particularly the social
structure of inner cities -- that have cultivated a
culture of violence.

Sloan, J.H., A.L. Kellermann, et al. (1988).
Handgun Regulations, Crime, Assaults, and Homicide:
A Tale of Two Cities. New England Journal of
Medicine 319: 1256. NCJ 127644

The cities of Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver,
British Columbia, were studied over a 7-year period
to understand the relationship between firearm
regulations and community rates of homicide. These
two cities are similar demographically and
geographically close to each other. The study
suggested that a modest restriction of citizens'
access to firearms is associated with lower rates
of homicide. Decreased availability of handguns did
not result in a direct shift to homicide by other
means. 

Smith, D. (1990). Caught in the Crossfire: A Report
On Gun Violence in Our Nation's Schools.
Washington, DC: Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.
NCJ 137427

Smith, D., and B. Lautman. (1990). A Generation
Under the Gun: A Statistical Analysis of Youth
Firearm Murder in America. Washington, DC: Center
to Prevent Handgun Violence. NCJ 159337

The authors' analysis of expository data provides
the basis for recommendations for reducing the
availability of guns, especially in the home. They
also recommend cooperation among parents,
educators, lawmakers, and law enforcement officials
to educate the public about the dangers of
firearms, reduce the availability of firearms, and
punish offenders quickly and severely.

Stephens, R.D. (1992). Congressional Testimony:
Weapons in Schools. Westlake Village, CA: National
School Safety Center. NCJ 159338

The author makes the case that administrators need
to be more aware of the significant increase in
weapons at our Nation's schools.

Sugarmann, Josh, and Kirstan Rand. (1994). Cease
Fire. Rolling Stone 677: 30-42.NCJ 127644

A regulatory approach to reducing gun violence is
suggested, requiring individuals to reassess their
understanding of the issue and reorient the way it
has been presented to the general public.
Recommendations include establishing a long-term
public education media campaign to change the
public's perception of gun violence, supporting new
and ongoing research into firearms violence, causes
and effects, and its economic costs, and recruiting
individuals and organizations not traditionally
involved in the debate.

Treanor, W.W., and M. Bijlefeld. (1989). Kids &
Guns: A Child Safety Scandal. Washington, DC:
American Youth Work Center and Educational Fund to
End Handgun Violence. NCJ 111607

This booklet examines issues surrounding the
problem of firearm and child safety, including
statistics about the nature and prevalence of the
problem and discussion of prevention issues.

The authors present a number of suggestions to deal
with the issue of children and guns: (1) Family
discussion of gun ownership, including reason for
the presence of a gun in the house, removal of guns
from homes with children, locking up unloaded guns
and putting them out of the reach of children, and
practicing emergency plans on what to do if an
intruder enters the house; (2) Student involvement
in preventing gun violence by organizing groups
against firearms, having firearm awareness
programs, and inviting speakers to classes; (3)
School encouragement of such student activity,
including development of curriculums for firearms
education and violence prevention designed
specifically for children and adolescents; (4)
Development of violence intervention programs by
juvenile judges, social workers, police officers,
and others who work with at-risk youth; (5)
Publicizing the Surgeon General's 1981 report
calling for handgun regulation and safety
campaigns, as well as the American Academy of
Pediatrics' call for handgun control; (6) Strict
regulation of BB guns by the Consumer Product
Safety Commission; (7) Provision of authority by
Congress to either the Consumer Product Safety
Commission or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms to regulate safety aspects of firearms;
(8) Study of the issue of children and guns by
State health departments, including recommendations
for public policy regarding education and safety;
and (9) Integration of gun-safety education into
programs run by national and local student
organizations, developed independently of the
National Rifle Association. 

The authors conclude with the hope that the next
biannual report will discuss positive initiatives
that have been taken in the fight to prevent
childhood death and injury due to firearm violence.

Teret, S.P., G.J. Winemute, and P.L. Beilienson.
(1992). The Firearm Fatality Reporting System: A
Proposal. Journal of the American Medical
Association 267 (22): 3073-3074. NCJ 159339

Van Kammen, W., and R. Loeber. (1994). Delinquency,
Drug Use, and the Onset of Adolescent Drug Dealing.
Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh. NCJ
159340

The authors analyzed data from the Pittsburgh Youth
Study (OJJDP's Causes and Correlates Study), a
longitudinal survey of boys in grades 1, 4, and 7
who were randomly selected from Pittsburgh public
schools. Followup interviews were conducted with
1,500 subjects, their teachers, and parents. This
particular analysis involved data from 6 years of
followup interviews on a sample of boys who were in
the 7th grade at the beginning of the study.

The researchers found that the frequency of
carrying a concealed weapon increased in the year
concurrent with the initiation of drug selling.
Among drug sellers, the rates for gun use steadily
increased while the rates for other weapons
decreased. This relationship was even more
significant among drug sellers who sold hard drugs
(heroin, cocaine, and LSD). Almost 80 percent of
those who sold hard drugs at age 19 were carrying a
gun. Finally, of the young men age 19 who carried a
weapon, 64 percent were also involved in selling
drugs. The authors conclude that a reduction in the
number of juveniles selling drugs is likely to
reduce the carrying of concealed weapons,
particularly guns. 

Webster, D.W., P.S. Gainer, and H.R. Champion.
(1993). Weapon Carrying Among Inner-City Junior
High School Students: Defensive Behavior vs.
Aggressive Delinquency. American Journal of Public
Health 83 (11): 1604-1608. NCJ 159341

This study estimated associations between beliefs
and experiences hypothesized to be related to
weapon carrying among youths. Among 7th-grade
males, 48 percent had carried knives, and 23
percent had carried guns. Forty-five percent of
8th-grade males carried a knife, and 40 percent
carried a gun. Key risk factors for knife carrying
were being threatened with a knife, getting into
fights, and disbelief that having a weapon
increases the carrier's risk of injury. Gun
carrying was associated with having been arrested,
knowing more victims of violence, starting fights,
and being willing to justify shooting someone.

Zimring, F.E. (1985). Violence and Firearms Policy.
In Curtis, L.A. (Editor). American Violence and
Public Policy: An Update of the National Commission
on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press. NCJ 097468

This paper describes what is known about guns and
gun violence, particularly since the Violence
Commission's report of 1968. Policy implications
are also discussed.

Using the last 30 years as a guide, the author
argued that the future will bring a national
handgun strategy composed of three parts:(1)
Federal restrictions on handgun transfers that
amount to permissive licensing and registration;
(2) wide variation in State and municipal handgun
possession and transfer regulation; and (3)
increasing Federal law enforcement assistance to
States and cities attempting to enforce more
restrictive laws than the Federal minimum. 

The most important element of future handgun policy
is the social notion of appropriate crime
countermeasures. Gun proponents will continue to
have strength if the handgun continues to be viewed
as a necessary household defense. The author
reviews the actions and beliefs of key opinion
leadership groups. Women were most likely to be
brought into the argument as those who need
protection but are least likely to own a gun. If
women's ownership of self-defense handguns
increases dramatically, the basis for public
opinion advocating drastic reduction of handguns
could not happen. Blacks were found to play a
minimal role in the argument over guns; in the
future this role would be pro- or anti-gun control.
Older Americans are thought to be a great potential
lobbying force in the gun debate, though consensus
was not found. The large number of females among
this population could contribute to an anti-gun
climate. Among the young, anti-gun sentiments must
trickle down to working class and lower class youth
before the young can provide a force in the
potential arena.

Zimring, F.E. (1993). Research on Firearms. Health
Affairs. (Winter 1993). Bethesda, MD: The People to
People Health Foundation. NCJ 148073

Research needed to formulate sound public policy is
lacking in the area of firearm violence and
control. This lack of research is due to the
volatile nature of the topic and the political
risks for policymakers of endorsing gun control.
Some of the research questions that need to be
answered include how much firearm use contributes
to the death rate from violence; how successful
particular gun control interventions can be; and to
the extent to which the benefits of gun control are
worth their cost to society. He suggests that
public health professionals, in collaboration with
social scientists and criminologists, can make a
significant contribution to the research on firearm
control.