Gunfire kills young children daily in U.S.
This undated photo provided by Robert Sullivan shows Veronica Moser-Sullivan, the youngest person slain in the July 20 attack that left 12 dead and dozens wounded during the Aurora theater shootings. / AP Photo/Robert Sullivan
WASHINGTON Before 20 children were massacred at school by a gunman in Newtown, Connecticut, Luke Schuster, 6, was shot to death in New Town, North Dakota. Six-year-olds John Devine Jr. and Jayden Thompson were similarly killed in Kentucky and Texas.
Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6, died in a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado., while 6-year-old Kammia Perry was slain by her father outside her Cleveland home, according to an Associated Press review of 2012 media reports.
Yet there was no gunman on the loose when Julio Segura-McIntosh died in Tacoma, Washington. The 3-year-old accidentally shot himself in the head while playing with a gun he found inside a car.
Obama on gun law: "We can do better than this"
As he mourned with the families of Newtown, President Barack Obama said the U.S. cannot accept such violent deaths of children as routine. But hundreds of young child deaths by gunfire - whether intentional or accidental - suggest it might already have.
Between 2006 and 2010, 561 children under 12 were killed by firearms, according to the FBI's most recent Uniform Crime Reports. The numbers each year are consistent: 120 in 2006; 115 in 2007; 116 in 2008, 114 in 2009 and 96 in 2010. The FBI's count does not include gun-related child deaths that authorities have ruled accidental.
"This happens on way too regular a basis and it affects families and communities - not at once, so we don't see it and we don't understand it as part of our national experience," said Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
The true number of small children who died by gunfire in 2012 will not be known for a couple of years, when official reports are collected and dumped into a database and analyzed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to release its 2011 count in the spring.
NRA speaks out, reignites gun control debate
In response to what happened in Newtown, the National Rifle Association, the nation's largest gun lobby, suggested shielding children from gun violence by putting an armed police officer in every school by the time classes resume in January.
"Politicians pass laws for gun-free school zones ... They post signs advertising them and in doing so they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk," said NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre.
Webster said children are more likely to die by gunfire at home or in the street. They tend to be safer when they are in school, he said.
None of the 61 deaths reviewed by The Associated Press happened at school.
Victims of Conn. school shooting
Children die by many other methods as well: violent stabbings or throat slashings, drowning, beating and strangulation. But the gruesome recounts of gun deaths, sometimes just a few paragraphs in a newspaper or on a website, a few minutes on television or radio, bear witness that firearms too, are cutting short many youngsters' lives.
One week before the Newtown slayings, Alyssa Celaya, 8, bled to death after being shot by her father with a .38-caliber gun at the Tule River Indian Reservation in California. Her grandmother and two brothers also were killed, a younger sister and brother were shot and wounded. The father shot and killed himself amid a hail of gunfire from officers.
Delric Miller's life ended at 9 months and Angel Mauro Cortez Nava's at 14 months.
Delric was in the living room of a home on Detroit's west side Feb. 20 when someone sprayed it with gunfire from an AK-47. Other children in the home at the time were not injured.
Angel was cradled in his father's arms on a sidewalk near their home in Los Angeles when a bicyclist rode by on June 4 and opened fire, killing the infant.
Most media reports don't include information on the type of gun used, sometimes because police withhold it for investigation purposes.
Gun violence and the toll it is taking on children has been an issue raised for years in minority communities.
The NAACP, a civil rights group, failed in its attempt to hold gun makers accountable through a lawsuit filed in 1999. Some in the community raised the issue during the presidential campaign and asked Obama after he was re-elected to make reducing gun violence, particularly as a cause of death for young children, part of his second-term agenda.
"Now that it's clear that no community in this country is invulnerable from gun violence, from its children being stolen ... we can finally have the national conversation we all need to have," said Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP.
This year's gun deaths reviewed by the AP show the problem is not confined to the inner city or is simply the result of gang or drug violence, as often is the perception.
Faith Ehlen, 22 months, Autumn Cochran, 10, and Alyssa Cochran, 11, all died Sept. 6. Their mother killed them with the shotgun before turning it on herself. Police said she had written a goodbye email to her boyfriend before killing the children in DeSoto, Missouri, a community of about 6,300.
In Dundee, Oregon, Randall Engels used a gun to kill his estranged wife Amy Engels and their children, Jackson, 11, and Bailey, 13, while they were at the table eating. The children were each shot twice. Engels also shot and killed himself. The town of more than 5,000 boasts on its website that it is a semi-rural town with "the cultural panache of a big city."
Many of the children who died in 2012 were shot with guns that belonged to their parents, relatives or baby sitters, or were simply in the home. Webster said children's accidental deaths by guns have fallen since states passed laws requiring that guns be locked away from youths or have safeties to keep them from firing.
But even people trained in gun use slip up - and the mistakes are costly.
A Springville, Utah, police officer had a non-service gun in his home that officials said did not have external safeties. His 2-year-old son found the gun and shot himself on Sept. 11. The names of the father and son were not released at the time of the shooting.
Obama's gun-violence task force gets to work
Obama has tapped Vice President Joe Biden to shape the administration's response to the Newtown massacre. The administration will push to tighten gun laws, many that have faced resistance in Congress for years. The solutions may include reinstating a ban on assault-style rifles, closing gun buying background check loopholes and restricting high-capacity magazines.
Those may have limited effect for children like Amari Markel-Purrel Perkins, of Clinton, Maryland. He shot himself in the chest on April 9 with a gun that an adult had stashed inside a Spiderman backpack.
Like most of the child victims at Newtown, Amari was 6.
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And those Bush era state sanctioned murders of little Iraqi kids--somewhere between 50,000 to 100,000 of those collaterally damaged to death children--how bad could that be? US media has never done special reports on those kids or those numbers (correct me if my figures are imprecise), so it can't be all that bad. Right? I mean if you don't know about it, how bad can it be? And the Afghani children--If 50,000 murdered Iraqi infants, toddlers & children isn't all that bad, well only a few tens of thousands Afghan kid casualties is not even a blip on the compassion radar. Oh wait. It seem we can only churn up compassion & vigils & sorrow & public presidential tears for dead AMERICAN children.
Well we were after TERRORISTS, so it's not our fault. You know, I bet those beings who were blasted out of their kid bodies, don't really care who started it, or who did what to whom & why, because dead is dead.
Here is what I want to convey:
Let us at the very least, consider the consequences of violence against all children
no matter how it is packaged or who commits it. And then let us consider deeply the consequences of violence against all human being, no matter how it seems to be justified or who commits it. Let's start there.
Let us plant this tiny germ of an idea deep within our hearts: We are all each other's people.
Peace.
Get rid of the crazy people and criminals and nobody gets hurt.
It is really that easy.
Between 2006 and 2010, 561 children under 12 were killed by firearms, according to the FBI's most recent Uniform Crime Reports. The numbers are consistent: 120 in 2006; 115 in 2007; 116 in 2008, 114 in 2009 and 96 in 2010.
According to Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2012). Child abuse and neglect fatalities 2010: Statistics and interventions. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau, 1,537 died from child abuse and neglect in 2010 ALONE.
Between 2006 and 2010, 561 children under 12 were killed by firearms. Wit 250 million privately owned firearms in this country.
IF THE PHARMACUETICAL INDUSTRY HAD A RECORD LIKE THAT NOBODY WOULD COMPLAIN.
The sale, transfer, importation and manufacturing of other ammunition feeding devices that can accept more than 10 rounds will also be banned."
http://www.decodedscience.com/new-assault-weapons-ban-no-gun-seizure/22871
You better read it and read it well for more then 100 different guns Many Many Many More then just AR15.....it is hand guns, shot guns, and rifles, so on.... Wake Up
What Religion is FeinStein what religion is Bloomberg? Why do these JEWS want to Ban guns in USA?
Feinstein voted for the extension of the PATRIOT ACT and the FISA provisions.
Both of which are RIGHTS and FREEDOMS LOST to AMERICAN CITIZENS. The FISA Laws are only in effect in the USA. These also negate the Bill Of Rights 4th Amendment. SCREW IT JUST MAKE THIS COUNTRY COMMUNIST with a KING OBAMA at the helm. Is he, Obama part of the lost tribe of Israel that were found in Africa and India?
GUnna drink some egg nog, eat some cookies, sing some songs, and go on an all expense paid vacation to Hawaii.....geez being the King is great. Why did/does Obama keep extending the Patriot Act when it was meant to only be temporary ??? Osama Bin Laden is Dead.
When you forfeit your right as a Citizen then you become a SUBJECT.
What Religion are the Owners of the Abortion Clinics?
I'd about bet the VAST Majority of religion are same as own Major News Media and that would be Jewish. There is a percentage of Jewish people in this World that think nothing more of Jesus Loving gentiles then servants or mere cattle to do their bidding. Don't get me wrong because there are Good Jewish people too.
Last I checked, there were 365 days in our year, NOT 115!
How can anyone believe this sensationalistic crap????
This really is terrible.
Also in 2009, 1,324 children (under 14) died in automobile accidents http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/child_passenger_safety/cps-factsheet.html
More than 5 children per day die from child abuse (that's 1,825+)http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics
Oh, yeah. And England is trying to reduce stabbing deaths. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/22/knife-crime-deaths-rise
And in 2010, 20 children were killed in school stabbings in China.
Guns are NOT the issue. Quit the sensationalist, one-sided reporting.
Why aren't we campaigning to outlaw alcohol? We don't even have a constitutional right to possess and drink alcohol.
Name any "tool" that kills people as its only intended purpose.
Hint: It isn't cars, knives, or alcohol.
Oh, I'm sorry, I was talking to someone who can't think critically.
Talking about stabbings in a country like China as a comparison is the funniest example of stupidity you cited, so I looked them up. They have fewer deaths from stabbing, and fewer child-related deaths from intentional or accidental weapons-related issues than the United States does - and they have THREE TIMES OUR POPULATION! This isn't "per capita", mind you. It's the actual number of children killed by weapons in China compared to the United States. What year? ALL OF THEM. Pick one.
Guns are very much the issue and I can prove it:
Would ANY of these mass slaughters have been even POSSIBLE if "arms" were defined as muzzle-loaders?
Oh, I forgot, I'm talking to a moron who can't think. Well, you're operating on a false assumption. STOPPING gun violence isn't feasible. REDUCING the number of firearms related deaths IS the goal. So the answer to that question is NONE OF THEM. It takes 15 seconds for an expert to reload a muzzle-loader. It takes most people 20 seconds. (I know, I own several.) How far can YOU run in 20 seconds? They're generally heavier than regular firearms so most people aren't as accurate with them, either. And if they miss, it's another 15-20 seconds before they'll be able to fire again. Running away isn't how to handle THAT situation. Rushing the shooter IS.
They work fine up close, where "home defenders" have to be (though a sword works better up close) as long as a shot is ready. But you can't really shoot into a crowded theater or classroom with one and expect everyone to hold still while you reload to shoot again. A family of four may lose two because the remaining living members will run like hell (or if they're smart, swarm the shooter so they only lose one) while the shooter is reloading.
Now, if "arms" were muzzle-loaders, they'd more than fulfill the constitutional requirements of the second amendment. But the NRA is against people having assault weapons. The NRA is against denying FELONS the right to own firearms. The NRA is AGAINST MAKING SURE SOMEONE ISN'T INSANE BEFORE THEY CAN BUY A GUN!
Those are irrational, and moronic, positions to hold. If the intention is to "intimidate" the government, rest assured "the government" is NOT intimidated by the popguns people privately own. Not by a long-shot. They have bigger, badder and better guns that will take out a pop-gun wielding moron from ten kilometers away, or even one hiding behind a "bullet proof" barricade. No insurgency on the planet succeeded in overthrowing its government without the aid of another government and their access to military grade equipment.
Ever.
Even ours. We'd still have the flag of England fluttering over our lands if it weren't for the help of the French.
And if you're wondering why I call you a moron it's because all of your examples PROVE firearms are the problem. You see, each of the other things you cited are tools that have another (or many other) more practical purpose and aren't designed just to be killing people. Guns only have one purpose - to kill people. They were invented for warfare. They were only later adapted for hunting, but a bow and arrow can do that just as well.
So in the end, only a moron - and a fool - would compare cars, knives and alcohol to guns, or fail to see that guns are, indeed, the problem.
How about the revolving door policy relating to the incarceration of our violent offenders, where is the deterrent to violent crime.
Why is it that an individual selling Cannabis can get a longer prison sentence than some monster that commits murder, how is this balance.
We let drunk drivers in this nation kill indiscriminately with such nonsensical punishment in proportion to the crime.
Why is it the politicians in this Nation prefer to treat the symptoms of the disease instead of going after the real problem.
Oh yeah, the decisions are based solely on money, not the health and welfare of the citizens.