Schwab-Stone surveyed 2,536 students in sixth, eighth and 10th grades. More that 40 percent of the youth reported exposure to a shooting or stabbing in the past year, and 74 percent reported feeling unsafe in one or more common environmental contexts. Guns are part of everyday life for many of our children. Violent Entertainment Violence as entertainment is an accepted norm for daily fun and games. Ninety-nine percent of American households contain at least one television set.
Video games abound in the home, in the arcades and are portable anywhere.
The real world is even more terrifying. Our children are frightened, hyperalert, hyperactive and impulsive because the world is threatening and unpredictable. Thirty percent to 50 percent of our adolescents may carry guns. One in every 10 children seen at Boston City Hospital's pediatric primary care clinic has witnessed a knifing or shooting before the age of six. These children inhale the secondhand violence of their environment.