BALTIMORE — On Monday, WMAR told neighbors about 16-year-old Izaiah Carter, a Patterson High School student who was shot to death right outside of school.
Now we're taking a deeper look at just how common gun violence has been among youth in our nation.
Since August of 2022, 16 Baltimore City students have died as a result of gun violence.
Now experts like Bloomberg's American Heath professor Daniel Webster talked about this public health crisis and what it's going to take to fix it.
Between 2019 and 2020, professor Webster said gun violence, gun sales, and the presence of ghost guns have substantially increased throughout our nation.
“We had never seen such a sharp increase in homicides from one year to the next, a 35% increase. Now, youth were part of the same trend. The trend data show that the increases for teenagers being killed with guns has increased even more so than for adults,” Webster said.
Professor Webster said if you contrast 2019, with 2022, there's a 65% increase in the number of teens killed with firearms in the United States.
This week, outside Patterson High School, 16-year-old Izaiah Carter was shot to death. He’s just one of several students WMAR has covered being involved in gun violence near school grounds this year. Webster blames easy access to guns , and challenges in disadvantaged communities as part of the reason for this public health crisis.
“Guns are more available in their environment. Too many of our youth are being shot. But they're often the hardest to reach. More young people feel threatened, they feel that their life is a risk. They can't rely upon public safety systems, police, or others to protect them. So what do they do, they try to find a gun,” Webster said.
This idea could then become socially contagious causing youth to think a firearm is their only form of protection. Webster said this is further perpetuating that dangerous mindset of violence.
“Part of the reason Baltimore has a very high rate of homicides, and homicides involving youth is that with too many pockets of concentrated poverty, and disinvestment. This is it's a heartbreaking, heartbreaking situation right now, and I hope we act with urgency," Webster said.
“We want youth in Baltimore to be safe. We have to also think about how do we get investment in communities that have suffered from structural racism and disinvestment?. We should feel this as a crisis right now and we should really set our minds to solving it. We're failing our youth, let's do what we can now, but, let's also have a mindset thinking long term. How do we strengthen our schools or social support systems for kids?,” Webster continued.
Webster also mentioned some community organizations like ROCA who are doing it correctly. Roca caters to the age group of teens and young adults who need the help. Webster said changing the mindset and the way young people think about solving conflict is going to be the most rewarding when it comes to combating crime.
Also, strengthening those social support services in the community that are often the reasons crimes are committed in the first place, due to lack of resources.
