http://users.mwci.net/~chuckbri/kidsandguns.html

April 25, 1993

Children and Guns: Sensible Solutions

By David B. Kopel
One of the first factual monographs recommending a policy strategy for the emotional and easily misunderstood subject of children and guns, the study demonstrates that:

Lawmakers must accurately gauge the problem of children and guns, to make sure that any new legislation reduces rather than increases harm.
Alarmist contentions that “the onslaught of childhood violence knows no boundaries” are untrue. Firearms figure in less than 1% of all deaths for children under age 15. Gun-related homicides are, however, extremely high for inner-city black males aged 16-19. Remedies must therefore be tailored to the specific problem, rather than being sweeping and symbolic.

Accidental gun deaths by children have declined 50% since the 1970s. To reduce accidents further, safety education is preferable to government required gadgetry (which might increase accidents), or to gun prohibitions.

Neither the youth suicide rate nor the prevalence of guns in suicide have changed substantially since the 1970s. Careful analysis of existing research shows no evidence that the presence of guns increases suicide risks for mentally healthy teenagers.

Claims about the frequency with which high school students carry guns to school are wildly exaggerated. At least 90% of teenagers who do carry firearms to school are carrying for protection, and not for crime. The best way to reduce the need of students to carry guns is to take youthful criminals off the streets, and put them in prison, thus reducing the need of other students to arm for protection.

Confronting the very serious problem of inner-city black male teenage homicide requires a direct attack on the social ills which cause so many young people to grow up believing that their own lives and the lives of others are worthless. Since severe drug prohibition has not reduced the supply of drugs in the inner cities, it is foolish to expect that gun controls will reduce guns in the inner-city. Legislators should consider several immediate steps to get juvenile criminals off the streets, and to begin addressing the social ills that breed juvenile crime.

——————————————————————————–

Copyright – 1993 – David B. Kopel

INDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan Colorado think tank. It is governed by a statewide board of trustees and holds a 501(c)(3) tax exemption from the IRS. Its public policy focuses on economic growth, education reform, local government effectiveness, equal opportunity, and the environment.

PERMISSION TO REPRINT this paper in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided full credit is given to the Independence Institute. DAVID B. KOPEL is Director of the Second Amendment Project at the Independence Institute. He also serves as an associate policy analyst with the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C., think-tank. His book The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies? (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1992) was awarded the Comparative Criminology Prize by the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Comparative and International Criminology.

JOHN K. ANDREWS, JR., is President of the Institute.