Shootings involving children and adolescents have skyrocketed in New York

Firearms violence involving children and adolescents has hit more families in New York this year than in 2020 and 2019. This alarming trend has also been recorded nationwide. PIX 11.

The number of casualties in youth shootings this year has nearly doubled from the same period just two years ago, according to NYPD figures.

Between January 1 and September 26, there were 89 shooting victims under the age of 17 in New York. For comparison: the number of victims for the same period in 2020 is 84, and in 2019 - 45.

The data becomes even more horrifying when comparing the death toll of young people in shootings. Between January 1 and September 26, 16 children or adolescents were killed in the city from firearms. During the same period of 2019, three young people died. In 2020, seven children under the age of 17 were killed during this period.

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"Everything around is terrible"

New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea has acknowledged the rise in shootings involving urban youth. The NYPD is trying to reach at-risk teens before they take up arms, he said.

“Everything is terrible,” he said. "In my opinion, we, of course, as a society, must achieve more."

New York is not alone in grappling with a sharp increase in gun violence over the past two years.

Data from the National Archives of Firearms Violence show that 1 youths have been killed and 179 injured in shootings this year in the United States. Overall, youth homicide rates skyrocketed from 3 to 292. And the data shows the situation is getting worse this year.

Pandemic and idleness

Experts say the idleness caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to easy access to weapons. And disputes among adolescents often end in the use of weapons.

The Reverend Starsky Wilson, president and CEO of the Children's Defense Fund, said the surge in arms sales during the pandemic also contributed to this.

“There are more weapons available on the street,” Wilson said.

Black children and adolescents were four times more likely to receive gunshot wounds than whites. A report from the Children's Defense Fund found that child and adolescent mortality from gunfire peaked at a 19-year high in 2017. Since then, it has remained at a high level.

Human rights activists as well as elected officials in New York and across the country, including President Joe Biden, have proposed plans on how to deal with the increase in shootings.

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In the spring, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio detailed preventive measures to combat gunfire. Among them is the strengthening of the police presence in an area with a high crime rate. The plan included weapons ransom activities and various programs to engage youth from high-risk communities in useful activities.

However, the implementation of this plan does not seem to have yielded results, judging by the violence with the use of weapons among adolescents.