ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 7, 1997 TAG: 9702070049
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: Associated Press
American youngsters are 12 times more likely to die by gunfire than their counterparts in the rest of the industrialized world, the government said Thursday.
The gun deaths are part of an overall surge in murders and suicides among the nation's youth, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
``Our children are getting killed or killing themselves at higher rates than any other country,'' said Dr. Etienne Krug, a CDC medical epidemiologist. ``No child should die a violent death in the most industrialized country in the world.''
American children are five times more likely to be killed than those in the rest of the industrialized world: The homicide rate is 2.57 out of every 100,000 children under age 15. That compares with an overall rate of .51 in the 25 other countries surveyed, the CDC said.
Youngsters in the United States also are twice as likely to commit suicide. The U.S. rate is .55 out of every 100,000 children, compared with .27 for the rest of the industrialized world.
And deaths caused by firearms amount to 1.66 out of every 100,000 children in the United States, compared with .14 in the other nations.
``We are a more violent society,'' said Holly Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Handgun Control Inc. ``When you add firearms, which are by far the most lethal means of injury, what you're going to see is an increase in death rates.''
From 1950 to 1993, murder rates have tripled and suicide rates have quadrupled among U.S. children under age 15, the CDC said. In 1950, 0.8 per 100,000 U.S. children under 15 were killed, compared with 2.57 in 1993. And the suicide rate was 0.2 per 100,000 children in 1950, compared with 0.9 per 100,000 in 1993.
The CDC study reflects figures for 1990 to 1995. Each country surveyed had more than 1 million people, similar economies and a system that recorded death rates.
Working with a total estimate of 2,872 child homicides and suicides for all of the countries in a given year, the CDC noted:
* 73 percent of the 1,995 homicides were among U.S. children.
* 54 percent of the 599 suicides were among U.S. children.
* 86 percent of the 1,107 deaths caused by guns were among U.S. children. Twenty-two percent of all the gun deaths were unintentional.
Guns were the primary cause of homicide among children in Finland, Israel, Australia, Italy, Germany and England. No children died from guns in Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Singapore, Japan and Kuwait, the CDC said.
The CDC now plans to study the countries more closely to find similarities between them and the United States.
Gun Owners of America, a pro-gun organization, was skeptical of the CDC's findings.
``It's meaningless to compare the U.S. to other countries lumped together like that,'' said John Velleco, a spokesman for the Springfield, Va., group. ``I think there is a problem with our young people. It's a serious problem not tied to the availability of firearms. They have never been more strictly regulated.''
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB