Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991 TAG: 9103140476
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Do you realize that the leading killer of young black males is young black males?" Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan said in a speech scheduled for delivery Wednesday night at Hampton University, a historically black school in Hampton, Va. "As a black man and a father of three, this reality shakes me to the core of my being."
Sullivan cited a study, to be released today by HHS' National Center for Health Statistics, which shows that:
Between 1984 and 1988, the firearm death rate among teens increased by more than 40 percent, to the point where, for the first time, the firearm death rate for both black and white male teen-agers exceeded the mortality rate from all natural causes.
In 1988, a white male teen-ager ages 15 to 19 was 11 percent more likely to die from a bullet than a disease, and a black male teen-ager was 2.8 times more likely.
A total of 1,641 15- to 19-year-olds were victims of homicide by firearms in 1988, a figure that included 955 black males, 453 white males, 98 black females and 97 white females.
The number of firearm deaths - a more comprehensive figure that includes accidents and suicides as well as homicides - was 3,226 for that age group, including 1,634 white males, 1,118 black males, 273 white females and 116 black females.
Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for all people ages 15 to 34, with motor vehicle injuries accounting for two-thirds of the total.
Homicide and suicide are the second- and third-leading causes, followed by diseases such as cancer, leukemia and heart disease. However, among black males ages 15 to 34, homicide is the leading cause of death, and firearms are implicated in 88 percent of all these homicides.
"During every 100 hours on our streets we lose three times more young men than were killed in 100 hours of ground war in the Persian Gulf," Sullivan said. "Where are the yellow ribbons of hope and remembrance? Where is the concerted, heartfelt commitment to supporting the children of this war?"
Sullivan shied away from any discussion of gun control. However, Rep. Edward Feighan, D-Ohio, said, "I can only hope that the information the secretary has presented will persuade some in his administration to support handgun control."
Feighan is lead sponsor of a bill - opposed by the Bush administration - that would mandate waiting periods on handgun purchases.
"The collapse of the American family in the past few decades is historically unprecedented in the [United States], and possibly in the world," he said. "Nowhere is this trend more apparent than in the black community, where 86 percent of children spend part of their childhood living in a mother-only family.
"Some argue that the high rate of single parenthood has not adversely affected our children. But, sadly, the research does not bear them out. . . . Study after study has shown that children from single-parent families are five times more likely to be poor and twice as likely to drop out of school. . . . They are also more likely to be involved in criminal activity, to abuse drugs and alcohol, to suffer ill health, and to become trapped in welfare dependency."
The secretary proposed no new government programs to address these matters.
"I believe the federal government's role should be to encourage and assist the spread of local indigenous" community organizations that combat crime and try to restore families, he said.
by CNB