Telling A Story With Numbers

Gun Control Group Hopes New Stats Will Counter NRA Arguments

(CBS)  Two children on average are murdered every day in America with handguns and nearly a third of those young victims are killed by other children, according to a study released Wednesday.

Gun control advocacy group the Violence Policy Center (VPC) said an analysis of FBI homicide statistics from 1995 through 1999 found that 3,971 children aged 1 to 17 years old were killed by handguns - an average of two a day.

Called "Kids in the line of fire," the study said nearly one-third of the victims were murdered by other children and that more children were murdered with handguns than all other weapons combined.

"All too often child handgun deaths are day-in-and-day-out homicides, frequently involving children both as victims and shooters. The bottom line is that American children are at high risk of getting shot and being killed," said the study.

The firearms homicide rate was 16 times higher for American children than for those living in all the other 25 major industrialized nations, the VPC said.

What separated American youth from their peers in other countries, said the VPC, was the availability of firearms, particularly handguns.

Citing a 1996 Police Foundation Survey, the VPC said 15.7 percent of Americans owned a handgun and 57 percent of these weapons were usually kept unlocked.

Study Text

A copy of "Kids in the Line of Fire: Children, Handguns, and Homicide" is available on the VPC's Web site located at www.vpc.org

In cases where the race of the victim was identified, black children were seven times more likely than white children to be among the dead from handgun violence, the study found.

Youth gun violence has come under scrutiny in recent years in America following a spate of school shootings, including a 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado when two students with assault weapons killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves.

Earlier this week, a plot was uncovered at a Massachusetts school in which several students allegedly were planning an assault on their high school. The plot was foiled by a janitor who found a letter outlining the scheme.

"Although a tragedy in New Bedford, Mass., was apparently averted this week, two kids are murdered with handguns every day in our country," said Karen Brock, VPC health policy analyst and study author.

Whie a large amount of publicity is given to high-profile school shootings, the VPC said most of the shooting deaths were day-to-day homicides.

The reason for the high toll of child victims, said Brock, is the easy access to handguns in America.

"Children still have easy access to handguns because of the lax practices of an unregulated gun industry and the mistaken idea that a handgun in the home offers protection, when in reality it is far more likely to result in horrific consequences," said Brock.

The study found nearly half of the victims were killed by an acquaintance while a third were killed by strangers and nearly 9 percent were killed by a friend or romantic partner. Nearly 11 percent were killed by a family member with a handgun and 56 percent of them were murdered by their parents.

Gun control is a politically sensitive issue in America, with powerful groups of both sides of the debate lobbying hard in Congress for their cause.

There are several gun control measures being considered in Congress and early next year. Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman are expected to propose legislation making it harder for criminals to buy weapons at gun shows.

"Senator Lieberman thinks it's an important piece of legislation and he would like to see it passed sooner rather than later," said Leslie Phillips, a spokeswoman for the Connecticut senator.

The new law will require criminal background checks at gun shows where at least 75 weapons are sold and increase both state and federal penalties for violent criminals.

The senators are expected to attach the bill to homeland security legislation following the Sept. 11 attacks and will argue that foreign terrorists have exploited a loophole and bought weapons at gun shows without undergoing background checks.

The National Rifle Association has called the proposal intrusive and says it infringes on the rights of gun owners in America.