Under federal law, it is illegal for youth under age 18 to purchase rifles or shotguns, and for those under age 21 to purchase handguns. However, fatality and injury statistics clearly show that guns are finding their way into young people’s hands. Many of these...
Young people are overrepresented as both victims and perpetrators of violence. Indeed, some commentators have suggested that recent cohorts of youth have been composed of “superpredators” who have little regard for human life. The evidence, however,...
As the articles in this journal issue show, gun violence affects children and youth in many ways: psychologically, emotionally, financially, and legally. But first and foremost, gun violence affects children’s physical safety. Therefore, this issue opens with an...
Advocacy groups on both sides of the guns issue frequently point to changing personal behavior–of both parents and children–as a key element in reducing gun violence among youth. Efforts to bring about these changes range from community-based campaigns, to...
Gun violence imposes significant costs on children, families, and American society as a whole. But these costs can be difficult to quantify, as much of the burden of gun violence results from intangible concerns about injury and death. This article explores several...
