The Big Reason Young People Don't Debate Gun Control the Way Adults Do

[G_j]

http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/why-todays-young-people-think-differently-about-guns-20180306

A dramatic 25-year reduction in gun violence among youth puts high schoolers in a unique position to influence debate.




- Gun violence discussion among adults is already retreating once again into an easy consensus: the problem is just about “kids”—deranged young shooters, and protecting “children” terrified of gun-menaced schools. Quick remedies are emerging from the White House and other political leaders: just raise the age for firearms purchases, pack schools with more cops, arm the teachers, install more security hardware, and widen the net of intrusive “mental health” regimes targeting young misfits.

But America’s gun violence epidemic only can be reduced through effective, enforced legislative policies—or simply by fewer people shooting people.

—

Those young people who in previous generations might have reached for a gun are doing that far less often in the 2000s. The trend is the same for other negative behaviors: Those who might have dropped out of school are staying in. The criminal element is going straight. Their homophobic and xenophobic cohorts have dwindled, and most youth are opting for tolerance and integration. Fewer young women are experiencing unplanned pregnancies.

Today’s Millennials and younger Generation Zers are living those changes, and they’re adding up. In New York City and Los Angeles, a racially diverse generation of middle- and high-school students reduced gun homicides from a total 447 in 1990 to 42 in 2016. Across the country, school-age teens 12-17 show a drop in gun homicide rates more than double that of other ages. Today, they’re actually safer from gun homicide than their parents.



..more..

[mr_lebowski]

1. Funny how much faster the #'s drop ... when a Democrat is President ... (nt)

[Igel]

3. They dropped quickly for Bush II and Clinton.

Some of the "Clinton drop" was also Bush I's.

The "pure Obama" segment shows an increase.

Flat is Bush II, but also a decline for some Bush II and early Obama.

Presidents aren't God. They're neither omnipotent nor omniscient. They don't get credit for everything that happens under them, they don't get blame for everything that happens under them. And it's especially the case that under one only and all good things are due to the president and under another only and all bad things are his.

[JHB]

4. Don't be so quick to ascribe it to an executive...

...because it's part of Giuliani's shtick too.

NYC's crime rate dropped during his terms as mayor, and he was quick to take credit that his policies were responsible.

Even though crime dropped just about all over, including places that had different policies.

[G_j]

6. That's him, the rooster

taking credit for the sunrise.

[BigmanPigman]

2. I wish they could all vote in the midterms.

They are keeping this issue alive and they are quickly learning that money is what counts in politics, as well as the fact that politicians lie like a rug.

[hunter]

5. K&R

.