Urban teens and the proliferation of illegal guns

An article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune explores the proliferation of illegal guns in urban neighborhoods in Minnesota and all over the country. Teens in these neighborhoods can easily access guns and feel as if they need them for survival. From the article:

Minneapolis had recorded another senseless murder: a case of two teenagers, shooter and victim, both swept away in the river of guns flowing through poor urban neighborhoods in the Twin Cities and across the country, guns that constantly swap hands, guns from a shadowy marketplace that’s hard for investigators to shut down, guns that are cheap, plentiful and ever more deadly. 

“Children know that guns are easily available, that they’re getting into the wrong hands, and no one is really addressing that issue,” said Andre Dukes, assistant pastor at Shiloh Temple International Ministries and family academy director of the Northside Achievement Zone.

As they struggle to prevent more teen funerals and prison terms, Dukes and other community leaders say the raging debate over gun control must include the bloodshed in the nation’s cities being stoked by a flourishing, illicit gun trade.

Urban gun violence does not typically erupt in nation-shocking massacres like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., last December. On city streets, the devastation from gun violence comes and goes with little notice, day after day, with just a few shots, some fired randomly, often after a gang dispute or a petty grudge.

This is a compelling article with the story of a young man who shot at another young man in a confrontation that would not have been deadly without the gun. Guns are easily available to teens all over America. It reminds us of the daily deaths of children and teens in our communities.

A gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.