
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 21, 1994                   TAG: 9401210091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CHILDREN'S GROUP AIMS AT THREAT FROM GUNS

The equivalent of a "classroomful" of children is killed every two days by firearms, the Children's Defense Fund reported Thursday, warning that homicide is the nation's third-leading cause of death for elementary- and middle-school children.

The children's advocacy group traditionally has used its report to underscore issues of child poverty and related social problems. Its annual State of America's Children report, called for a "cease-fire" in "America's undeclared 20th-century civil war," citing a steep rise both in children victimized by guns and those arrested for committing crimes with guns:

In 1991, the number of American children younger than 10 who died as a result of firearms was twice the number of American soldiers killed in the Persian Gulf and Somalia combined.

Between 1979 and 1991, nearly 50,000 children were killed by guns, a figure equivalent to the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War.

A child in this country is 15 times more likely to die from gunfire than a child in Northern Ireland.

- The Washington Post

by CNB