Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 13, 1995 TAG: 9511130109
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Nearly one in four people arrested for weapon crimes is a juvenile, and weapon offenses are the fastest growing youth crime, the Justice Department reported Sunday.
A study by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics found that juveniles accounted for 23 percent of all weapon crime arrests in 1993, compared with 16 percent in 1974. Such juvenile arrests more than doubled, from less than 30,000 to more than 61,000, between 1985 and 1993, while adult arrests for these crimes grew by one-third.
Juvenile delinquency cases involving weapon violations grew by 86 percent between 1988 and 1992, more than any other type of juvenile offense.
The weapon crime data track closely the surge in violent youth crimes, which has been widely reported during the last three years.
Weapon offenses include the illegal use, possession, trafficking, carrying, manufacturing, importing or exporting of guns, ammunition, silencers, explosives and some types of knives.
President Clinton said in a statement Sunday that the statistics are ``a chilling reminder'' that juvenile violence is the country's top crime problem. ``Now is not the time to weaken our laws,'' he said.
Teen-age violence, particularly with guns, has been rising steadily since 1985, even as the number of teen-agers has declined. During the next 20 years, the age 14-17 group is expected to grow.
``If the last decade's trends continue unchecked, juvenile arrests for violent crime will double by the year 2010,'' Attorney General Janet Reno said last week.
The government already has begun to respond to soaring teen-age gun violence. Last year's crime act made it a federal offense for people under age 18 to own a handgun and provided up to 10 years in prison for anyone providing a handgun to someone under age 18.
Last week, Reno allocated $8 million for six communities to test a variety of ideas for reducing youth violence. Under the crime act, 10 police departments have been allocated $1 million to devise community policing programs designed to curb youth gun crimes.
The administration is asking Congress to override a Supreme Court decision that struck down a law prohibiting people from bringing guns onto school property.
Rep. Charles Schumer of New York, ranking Democrat on the House crime subcommittee, said the figures are ``frightening and show government at all levels isn't doing enough.
``Thirty years ago, Americans wouldn't imagine 14-year-olds would have easy access to guns.'' Schumer supports licensing and registration of gun dealers and owners ``so owning a gun is no harder than owning a car.'' But he said gun control opponents in the Republican-controlled Congress would defeat such measures.
Instead, he is drafting legislation to require that states make public the names of juveniles convicted of felonies involving guns ``so the people and the system would know.'' Those convictions then could be cited as a prior offense if there were later crimes; most juvenile criminal records now are kept secret and can't be used in later adult trials.
Schumer added that the new figures should ``warn the Congress against repealing prevention measures.'' in last year's crime act, like increased drug treatment and programs to give kids after-school activities.
The Justice Department study showed that weapon violations are overwhelmingly committed by males and proportionately more prevalent among blacks than whites. Males accounted for 92 percent of the arrests in 1993 for weapon offenses. While whites accounted for 55.4 percent of the arrests, the arrest rate for blacks was five times that of whites.
by CNB