Our community deserves quality healthcare and that means more than just medicine this entitlement also includes healthcare providers that have a genuine interest in preventive treatment. Injuries brought on by violence is an area we can work together and provide an improved rate of decrease by helping the children and young adults that are often victims to consider better alternatives and the support they need to stay on more well-adjusted path to success.
Strategic partnerships with law enforcement and other key members of our community will ideally give our program the necessary leverage needed to reach out to those individuals who have been subjected to the fear and paralyzing effect of violence.
Violence in the inner-city environment is as real as the air we breathe and our community is bound by fear of retaliation if they speak-up about the things they are seeing and the people that are facilitating this dangerous activities. The article above is a clear example that we have to create more support systems that our neighbors will feel comfortable speaking through.
Mass media (Internet, Music, TV, Video Games) are filled with violence and these writers are so creative they usually romanticize the hero and villain of the stories as if their actions don’t carry collateral damage. You and I know this is far from the truth when someone is injured in a violent incident families are affected in ways that are hardly discussed in the media. We see these effects on a regular basis and we know there is a responsibility assigned to organizations such as ours to bring the long-term effects of violence in our community to the attention of the young people we help.
It’s a reality that deserves some serious consideration by everyone in the community. Some school age children walk a dangerous path between school and home on a daily basis. Imagine how stressful it has to be knowing that shortly after the last bell in school rings, you and your friends have to instantly switch your mindset from learning about Mathematics and History to survival and maneuvering from one street to another hoping you’re not harassed or just caught in the cross-fire of an incident you have no knowledge or interest in. As you can imagine that does not make for a good day of school when and the amount of adjustment these kids are forced to make, usually creates a much harder barrier to learning than some of them already have.
Every year more than 7,000 children with gunshot wounds are admitted to hospitals in the United States, according to a new study that was presented Sunday at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Fla. The report, entitled "United States Gunshot Violence: Disturbing Trends," found that approximately. Researchers say that more than 500 of these children die because of their injuries. Reviewing about 36 million pediatric hospital admissions from 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009 for the study, the researchers found that the number of kids hospitalized from gunshot wounds has been rising. Read more
September 16, 2007 - The families of two teenagers whose bodies were not found at the scene of a crash in Gary until hours after the accident want to know how that could have happened. The driver, who survived, says he believes police left his friends to die. Darius Moore, the driver of the car, says police failed to do their job when they did not search for his friends in a nearby ravine after their vehicle crashed. He also says that because of that, his friends were fatally injured in the accident. Read more
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From the moment they enter the world, children are most exposed to the harshest deprivations of their environment -- to the cruelest shortcomings of those charged with their care. Within the developing world, this vulnerability is most acute. Whatever their families need, children need it most. Whatever stress their parents are enduring, children bear the biggest brunt of it. The sad reality is that children's dependency on those closest to them often puts them at the greatest risk.
On Christmas Eve almost 16 years ago, Ann Marie Crowell's 12-year-old son Brian was playing at a friend's house. The boys found a gun, and Brian was accidentally shot in the neck. Crowell joined HuffPost Live to discuss how families cope when they lose a child to a firearm accident. Brian was rushed to the hospital, but his injuries were too severe. "They did try to do surgery for about two hours, and the doctor came out and said that the bullet had entered through his neck and gone down his chest and basically exploded everything in there. And they allowed us to be with him for his last breath. And he passed away that evening."
The new study drilled down some of the data from a 2009 survey of kids’ pediatric stays. That year, the majority of kids’ gunshot injuries — 4,559 — resulted from intentional assaults with a firearm. An additional 2,149 were accidents, and 270 were suicide attempts. About six percent of the children who made it to the ER ended up dying in the hospital from their injuries, which are typically open wounds, fractures, or brain or spinal injuries.
How can we prevent gun injuries? We know the behaviors that place children and adolescents at high risk. Little children explore their worlds without understanding danger, and in one unsupervised moment, an encounter with a gun can end in fatality. School-age children often enter the worlds created by television shows, movies, and video games. Because of their developmental age, school-age children don't necessarily understand that people who are really shot may really die. A firearm in their hands can transform fantasy into tragedy. Even in our own lives, this risk has been manifest: to this day, one of us is haunted by the childhood memory of aiming a loaded rifle at a babysitter.
In 2010, guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings. This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths each day and more than three deaths each hour. 73,505 Americans were treated in hospital emergency departments for non-fatal gunshot wounds in 2010. Firearms were the third-leading cause of injury-related deaths nationwide in 2010, following poisoning and motor vehicle accidents.
In 2010, 15,576 children and teenagers were injured by firearms — three times more than the number of U.S. soldiers injured in the war in Afghanistan, according to the defense fund.
Strong Racial Disparities The annual report found strong racial disparities remain, with black Americans much more likely to die than white Americans from a variety of causes. According to the report, 3,792 children and adolescents died from firearm injuries in 1998, down 10 percent from 4,223 in 1997 and down 35 percent from the high of 5,833 in 1994. Overall, 30,708 people of all ages died from gunshot injuries in 1998, a 5 percent drop from 1997.
Homicide and suicide are the second and third leading causes of death, respectively, among teens ages 15 to 19, after unintentional injury. In 2010, firearms were the instrument of death in 85 percent of teen homicides and 40 percent of teen suicides. While non-firearm injuries result in death in only one out of every 760 cases, almost one in four youth firearm injuries is fatal.
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Protect Children, Not Guns 2012 report that highlights national and state data on how gun violence affects children and teens in America. According to the report, the children and teens killed by guns in 2008 and 2009, would fill more than 229 classroom of 25 students each. Gun homicide is the number one cause of death for black teens. Below, Hatty Lee paints the grim picture.
Gun policies are influenced by interpretations of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, an ambiguously worded amendment which has been the subject of disagreement over the years. It was not until 2008 that the Supreme Court partially clarified the meaning of this amendment in District of Columbia v. Heller, in which it invalidated a firearm ban in Washington, D.C., stating that the second amendment protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home and within federal enclaves. In June 28, 2010 the Supreme Court ruled in the case of McDonald v. Chicago that this protection extends to the states as well. However, the courts appear to support restrictions to gun ownership, as well
May 7, 2013 NCJ 241730 Presents trends on the number and rate of fatal and nonfatal firearm violence from 1993 to 2011. The report examines incident and victim demographic characteristics of firearm violence, including the type of firearm used; victim's race, age, and sex; and incident location. Males, blacks, and persons ages 18 to 24 had the highest rates of firearm homicide from 1993 to 2010
The United States experiences epidemic levels of gun violence, claiming over 30,000 lives annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For every person who dies from a gunshot wound, two others are wounded. Every year, approximately 100,000 Americans are victims of gun violence. In addition to those who are killed or injured, there are countless others whose lives are forever changed by the deaths of and injuries to their loved ones.
Rising homicides and an increase in gang violence are sparking calls for local gun laws in Gary despite a state law that bars local ordinances regulating firearms. The state is sending technical assistance to Gary and has ordered city leaders to work with the Indiana State Police to identify needs. The U.S. Department of Justice also is consulting city officials.