This St. Louis Alderman proves in this article why gun control doesn't work. The article says that little thugs under 18 don't obey the law relating to firearms, then Alderman Sam Moore says that he supports repealing the concealed carry law for 21-year olds???!!! It is this mentality that we need to think about when voting in November.
Blondie
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...2AA7D4D535B217278625749900179B29?OpenDocument
Study finds many St. Louis teens living under the gun
By Nancy Cambria
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Teenage males in poor city neighborhoods would rather risk jail time than go unarmed, according to a new study that highlights the prevalence of gangs and firearms among young males in St. Louis.
Criminologists interviewed 338 teens and 629 men doing time in the city's juvenile and adult detention facilities for crimes such as property offenses, auto theft and probation violations.
Well over half of the juveniles interviewed over a four-year period said they had possessed a gun at some point. They were driven largely by gang involvement and fear of street crime.
"Particularly among young men, it is very easy to get guns, and they are very scared of the streets," said Beth Huebner, a professor of criminology and social justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
She co-authored the study with former colleagues Scott Decker, now at Arizona State University, and Adam Watkins, now at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. It will be published this fall in the journal Justice Quarterly.
The authors of the study found that nearly half of the teens who had carried a gun were also aware that it was illegal to do so. They obtained them anyway because fear of crime outweighed their fear of jail time.
Federal law bans possession of handguns by anyone under 18, with some exceptions, including hunting and military use. Missouri also prohibits selling, lending, giving away or delivering any firearm to a person under 18 without consent of a parent or legal guardian.
"They know what the penalties are, but they don't know what that means," Huebner said.
The teens don't understand that a simple disagreement among peers on a street corner can easily erupt into a fatality when a gun is present.
"You see 14-year-olds in lockup who have so much potential and really do believe they can go to college," Huebner said. "They're excited about the possibility of their futures but don't realize they've already begun to shut the door on it."
Of the juveniles who admitted possessing a gun, nearly half said they carried the guns while on the street. The majority of adults interviewed said they kept the guns only in their homes.
The majority of the juveniles in the study also admitted to being involved with gangs, while almost all of the participants said obtaining guns in their neighborhoods was easy. The authors decided not to ask where or how the study participants got their guns because most wouldn't answer for fear of getting a friend or gun dealer in trouble.
Rhonda Norris, a deputy juvenile officer who works with teens on probation for gun offenses, said the findings were on par with what she saw at the St. Louis City Family Court Juvenile Division's Gun Court. The program was established in 2003 to deal with juveniles facing gun charges.
Norris said she and another deputy typically handled 20 to 30 juveniles on parole a year. The majority have been prosecuted for illegally carrying a weapon but haven't used the weapon in a crime.
Most say they carry the guns for self-defense, Norris said, but don't consider the violence and criminal charges that might come of it.
"We talk to the teens about what it would be like if you were to pull the trigger," Norris said. "One of the things they need to understand is if they use the gun and they hurt or kill somebody, they are going to have to prove that it was really self-defense."
As of last week, there were nearly 100 homicides in the city, up by nearly a third from a year ago. Although many of the homicides remain unsolved, two have been at the hands of juveniles — ages 14 and 15 — who used guns.
Huebner said the majority of gun assaults took place in the city's most economically depressed neighborhoods, where teens and adults often embrace a gang culture dominated by guns.
Unlike Los Angeles, where the gang culture is highly organized and controls large enterprises such as drug dealing, gangs in St. Louis are more disorganized and can change on a block-by-block basis, Huebner said. That leaves teens more vulnerable to unpredictable altercations over everything from turf to sneakers, she said.
Huebner said the nation's economic woes were likely to make coveted items, such as sneakers and iPods, increasingly unaffordable for some teens — and more of a commodity among gangs.
It's a theory that rings true with the Lee brothers, who were outside the Central West End branch of the St. Louis Public Library on a recent day.
Tramon, Terrence and Tevin Lee said they all knew somebody their age who had a gun because the person feared getting jumped by a gang. The boys, who said they didn't participate in gangs, still believe they are at risk for being mistaken for a gang member.
"If you go outside your neighborhood and you're part of a gang, you're going to get jumped," said Tramon, 17, who grew up near Page and Taylor avenues but recently moved to Jennings.
The boys said they had mixed feelings about a friend's carrying a gun. On one hand, Terrence, 16, said it made him nervous when a friend once pulled out a gun and started fooling around with it.
But on the other hand, when it came to walking down a street in an area with gangs, "I actually felt protected when we're going out and he's got a gun."
Huebner's findings don't surprise St. Louis Alderman Sam Moore, who represents the 4th Ward just southwest of Fairground Park.
He blames the easy availability of weapons and what he called a "cowboy mentality" about possessing them.
He said that just two weeks ago some young men fired up to 30 rounds into the back of a house across the street from him. The gunmen, who were arrested, got their pistols over the counter, Moore said.
"We make weapons so available, why wouldn't they want to have them?" said Moore, 59.
He said he is favors repealing Missouri's concealed weapons law that allows adults 21 and older to carry loaded handguns in their vehicles without a permit.
"It has become like a sport," Moore said of weapon possession.
Blondie
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...2AA7D4D535B217278625749900179B29?OpenDocument
Study finds many St. Louis teens living under the gun
By Nancy Cambria
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Teenage males in poor city neighborhoods would rather risk jail time than go unarmed, according to a new study that highlights the prevalence of gangs and firearms among young males in St. Louis.
Criminologists interviewed 338 teens and 629 men doing time in the city's juvenile and adult detention facilities for crimes such as property offenses, auto theft and probation violations.
Well over half of the juveniles interviewed over a four-year period said they had possessed a gun at some point. They were driven largely by gang involvement and fear of street crime.
"Particularly among young men, it is very easy to get guns, and they are very scared of the streets," said Beth Huebner, a professor of criminology and social justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
She co-authored the study with former colleagues Scott Decker, now at Arizona State University, and Adam Watkins, now at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. It will be published this fall in the journal Justice Quarterly.
The authors of the study found that nearly half of the teens who had carried a gun were also aware that it was illegal to do so. They obtained them anyway because fear of crime outweighed their fear of jail time.
Federal law bans possession of handguns by anyone under 18, with some exceptions, including hunting and military use. Missouri also prohibits selling, lending, giving away or delivering any firearm to a person under 18 without consent of a parent or legal guardian.
"They know what the penalties are, but they don't know what that means," Huebner said.
The teens don't understand that a simple disagreement among peers on a street corner can easily erupt into a fatality when a gun is present.
"You see 14-year-olds in lockup who have so much potential and really do believe they can go to college," Huebner said. "They're excited about the possibility of their futures but don't realize they've already begun to shut the door on it."
Of the juveniles who admitted possessing a gun, nearly half said they carried the guns while on the street. The majority of adults interviewed said they kept the guns only in their homes.
The majority of the juveniles in the study also admitted to being involved with gangs, while almost all of the participants said obtaining guns in their neighborhoods was easy. The authors decided not to ask where or how the study participants got their guns because most wouldn't answer for fear of getting a friend or gun dealer in trouble.
Rhonda Norris, a deputy juvenile officer who works with teens on probation for gun offenses, said the findings were on par with what she saw at the St. Louis City Family Court Juvenile Division's Gun Court. The program was established in 2003 to deal with juveniles facing gun charges.
Norris said she and another deputy typically handled 20 to 30 juveniles on parole a year. The majority have been prosecuted for illegally carrying a weapon but haven't used the weapon in a crime.
Most say they carry the guns for self-defense, Norris said, but don't consider the violence and criminal charges that might come of it.
"We talk to the teens about what it would be like if you were to pull the trigger," Norris said. "One of the things they need to understand is if they use the gun and they hurt or kill somebody, they are going to have to prove that it was really self-defense."
As of last week, there were nearly 100 homicides in the city, up by nearly a third from a year ago. Although many of the homicides remain unsolved, two have been at the hands of juveniles — ages 14 and 15 — who used guns.
Huebner said the majority of gun assaults took place in the city's most economically depressed neighborhoods, where teens and adults often embrace a gang culture dominated by guns.
Unlike Los Angeles, where the gang culture is highly organized and controls large enterprises such as drug dealing, gangs in St. Louis are more disorganized and can change on a block-by-block basis, Huebner said. That leaves teens more vulnerable to unpredictable altercations over everything from turf to sneakers, she said.
Huebner said the nation's economic woes were likely to make coveted items, such as sneakers and iPods, increasingly unaffordable for some teens — and more of a commodity among gangs.
It's a theory that rings true with the Lee brothers, who were outside the Central West End branch of the St. Louis Public Library on a recent day.
Tramon, Terrence and Tevin Lee said they all knew somebody their age who had a gun because the person feared getting jumped by a gang. The boys, who said they didn't participate in gangs, still believe they are at risk for being mistaken for a gang member.
"If you go outside your neighborhood and you're part of a gang, you're going to get jumped," said Tramon, 17, who grew up near Page and Taylor avenues but recently moved to Jennings.
The boys said they had mixed feelings about a friend's carrying a gun. On one hand, Terrence, 16, said it made him nervous when a friend once pulled out a gun and started fooling around with it.
But on the other hand, when it came to walking down a street in an area with gangs, "I actually felt protected when we're going out and he's got a gun."
Huebner's findings don't surprise St. Louis Alderman Sam Moore, who represents the 4th Ward just southwest of Fairground Park.
He blames the easy availability of weapons and what he called a "cowboy mentality" about possessing them.
He said that just two weeks ago some young men fired up to 30 rounds into the back of a house across the street from him. The gunmen, who were arrested, got their pistols over the counter, Moore said.
"We make weapons so available, why wouldn't they want to have them?" said Moore, 59.
He said he is favors repealing Missouri's concealed weapons law that allows adults 21 and older to carry loaded handguns in their vehicles without a permit.
"It has become like a sport," Moore said of weapon possession.