This is scary.
NPR is reporting that a study conducted at a Flint Michigan Emergency Room found that 25% of those 14 to 24 had guns at home or were carrying them.
The researchers surveyed 689 teenagers and young adults, ages 14 to 24, in 2010 and 2011. The youths who said they had a gun were as likely to be white as African-American, and were about 20 years old on average . . .
Girls and young women accounted for almost one-third of the gun owners . . .
http://www.npr.org/...
The reason given for gun ownership--personal protection.
What's surprising is how easy it is for young people to get a gun, which they get from friends and family," says Robert Sege, a professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. He wrote an editorial accompanying the study. "This is emblematic of the kind of work we need to do to understand the origins of lethal violence and ways to reduce it. . . .
The fact that the youths in this study thought "it was OK to hurt someone if they hurt you," . . . Addressing youths' feeling that they need to be armed to be safe, and that it's OK to retaliate with violence, is something that should be addressed in order to reduce the risk of injury and death in the community, the authors say.
http://www.npr.org/...
While I am sure that gun control will not prevent all of these youths from obtaining access to a firearm, making it more difficult to obtain one should cut down the number of deaths and injuries from the use of firearms.
It is for this reason that the American Academy of Pediatrics supports gun control regulations. Specifically, in a policy statement they stated:
AAP’s 2012 policy statement, Preventing Firearm-Related Injuries in the Pediatric Population, states that the absence of guns from children’s homes and communities is the most reliable and effective measure to prevent firearm-related injuries in children and adolescents.
The AAP continues to support a number of specific measures to reduce the destructive effects of guns in the lives of children and adolescents through the implementation of the following recommendations.
• Enact a strong, effective assault weapon ban;
• Eliminate the gun show loophole and require mandatory background checks and waiting periods before all firearm purchases;
• Ban on high-capacity magazines;
• Enact strong handgun regulations; and
• Require safe firearm storage under federal law.
http://www.aap.org/...
It is time that we address the easy access to a deadly weapon which has cut short so many young lives. The NRA has had its way for far too long with deadly results.