Today, a teenager in the United States is more likely to die of a gunshot wound than of all diseases combined. We have analyzed county-level statistics on juvenile crime and mapped every shooting that was severe enough to require emergency medical attention. We have also interviewed incarcerated juvenile offenders and knowledgeable law enforcement officials. To learn the views of young people, we've conducted several focus groups with Atlanta-area teens. Virtually all of the teens we've interviewed have told us that guns are easy to obtain.
Teens can also look closer to home.
Although juvenile crime is on the decline, few teens believe these statistics. They resent the fact that any group of young black males is portrayed as a gang. Successful initiatives in Boston, New York City, and elsewhere suggest that youth violence can be reduced. Proactive strategies are much more effective than waiting for the next 911 call. In Atlanta, a consortium of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors is putting this theory to the test by attempting to break the chain of events that leads up to shootings.