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CSPV
Fact Sheets
- Males are overwhelmingly the perpetrators in homicides
involving youth, accounting for more than 90% of
incidents involving those 10-17 years of age. Moreover,
handgun homicides committed by young males (15-18)
between 1980 and 1995 increased by more than 150%,
while the rate for females remained low and stable.
This increase was fueled entirely by the use of
handguns.
- National homicide rates involving youth (aged
15-18) escalated in the mid-1980s through the early
1990s and then began to decline, yet still remained
significantly higher than the time of onset. Colorado
experienced a similar trend, although the time of
onset was the late 1980s.
- For both the nation and Colorado, males, ages
15-18, using handguns as lethal weapons drove this
trend.
- While the national and Colorado trends are similar,
the recent youth homicide rates in Colorado are
about half the magnitude of the national rates.
- Youth are three times more likely than adults
to be victims of violence. One quarter of youth
violent victimizations involve the use of a firearm.
Guns in Schools
- Nationally, more than 6,000 students were expelled
for carrying a gun to school during the 1996-97
year. Handguns were involved in 58% of these expulsions.
- Colorado youth carry weapons to school at the
same rate as the national average, but are less
likely to carry guns in other places.
- Nationally, 5% of students reported feeling too
unsafe to attend school at least once in the thirty
days preceding the National Youth Risk Behavior
Survey. In Colorado, 4% of students reported feeling
too unsafe to go to school.
- Nationally, 20% of high school students reported
carrying a weapon (e.g., gun, knife, or club) at
least once in the thirty days preceding the National
Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Approximately 8% reported
carrying a gun, and 10% reported having carried
a weapon on school property on one or more occasions
in those 30 days.
- Despite the prevalence of gun carrying in schools,
school shootings still remain relatively rare events.
Since 1992, approximately 190 shooting deaths have
occurred in American schools (both student and faculty/staff).
While clearly a serious issue, it must be noted
that these 190 school-related deaths represent only
about 1% of all youth killed with guns at the present.
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