But male violence drops off dramatically at the age of 25 or 30. Children are killing children. The United States now has 75 percent of all child murders in the industrialized world. And United States youngsters are twice as likely to commit suicide. Not only are the primary victims of youth homicide other youth, but fully 72 percent of the victims are known to the perpetrator.
Guns are the instrument or agent driving the youth homicide epidemic.
From 1976 through 1994, nongun youth homicide was flat or slightly down. In 1984, however, the number of youth homicides with a gun began rising, more than doubling within the next decade. Fifteen children per day are killed by guns in the United States, and 30 are injured. This epidemic of homicides has led to a stampede of state and federal laws to try children as adults in adult criminal courts. The removal of children from adult jails and prisons.