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The normalization of gun violence has already created a generation of youth who does not know a world absent the fear of mass shootings, schoolyards have become combat zones.
“I saw someone get shot and I saw blood splatter everywhere and they just fell off their chair,” described the unnamed young cousin of “Trisha” who was slaughtered during the Lewiston, Maine massacre. Children are victimized in every conceivable way because of America’s love affair with guns. “Why do people do this? I was more worried about am I gonna live . . .,” wondered 10-year-old Zoey Hutchinson after being grazed by a bullet in the October 25, 2023 Lewiston, ME mass shooting. Zoey was at the local bowling alley with her mother for youth night. Fourteen-year-old Aaron Young, who also attended the youth bowling night was killed, alongside his father during the massacre. Those incidents contributed to the more than 1695 children and teens killed in the U.S. in gun related incidents in 2023.
Gun violence has become an epidemic in the U.S. with children dying in record numbers due to homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings. Inadequate laws, and conflict resolution strategies and skills, inadequate and inaccessible mental health services, and a proliferation of access to firearms have all come together to create a perfect, deadly storm. Until we develop and employ effective strategies to address conflict resolution strategies in homes, schools and communities, and ensure access to mental health services, we will continue to see a rise in the gun violence that is robbing a generation of the innocence of childhood and youth.
On September 5, 2023 a father in Lithonia, Georgia emerged from a gas station to find his 7-year-old son dead from a gunshot. It is unclear whether the gunshot was self-inflicted, or whether it was at the hands of the victim’s 6-year-old sibling, who ran from the vehicle moments after the gunshot was heard. The father had left an unsecured firearm in the vehicle with his two children inside unsupervised. In April, 2023 a Memphis, Tennessee 12-year-old boy committed suicide after shooting his sister who also succumbed to her injuries. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, and an analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mortality statistics gun deaths among U.S. kids rose 50% from 2019 to 2021. Centers for Disease Control data statistics show that boys account for 83% of gun deaths among children and teens.Children aged 12 to 17 account for 86% of gun deaths among children and teens.And, astonishingly, 184 children aged 5 and under were killed in gun violence incidents in 2021.
The disparities in firearm-related child and teen deaths do not end with differences in gender. The 2023 State of America’s Children report indicates that Black males are as much as six-times more likely than White males to be victims of homicides. In fact, in 2021, 46% of all firearm-related deaths among children and teens involved Black victims, even though only 14% of the U.S. population under 18 was Black. By comparison, only 32% of firearm-related deaths involved White victims, 17% Hispanic, and 1% Asian victims. The disproportionate impact of gun violence in the Black community, and involving children is wreaking havoc on those communities, particularly on Black male children. Black communities have a rate of attrition due to gun violence with which it can scarcely contend. In 2021, 84% of gun deaths involving Black children and teens were homicides, and 9% were suicides. Versus 66% of gun deaths involving White teens being suicides, and 24% homicides.
In 2020 and 2021 firearms contributed to more deaths of children and teens in the U.S. than any other type of injury or illness, and at a much higher rate than our peer nations. More than any other cause, even surpassing deaths due to motor vehicles, which had long been the number one cause of child deaths. The child firearm death rate in the U.S. has doubled from a low of 1.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2013 to 3.7 in 2021.
Child and teen deaths continue to rise in the U.S. and continue to garner interest on a national and world stage. Yet, we fail to make significant progress enacting common sense laws for the protection of children. “The U.S. remains stagnant on enacting adequate gun violence prevention measures.” This stagnation results in “the loss of young lives and (leaves) holes in families and communities that can never be filled. We cannot afford to continue to normalize the exceedingly persistent public health crisis of gun violence.” On February 14, 2024 a shooting injured four students at Atlanta’s Benjamin Mays High School. This occurred against the backdrop of a bill supported by the Georgia Senate to authorize a tax-free holiday for the purchase of guns and ammunition. Passage of bills of this nature do nothing to address the alarming trend of increasing child homicides, suicides, and massacres.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were 656 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023. Instead of more cops on campuses, we need increased presence of school counselors. Instead of expulsions, we need more experiences that match children with their interests in school programming, to keep them in school and engaged. Instead of juries and arrests, we need jobs, to meet children at the very basic needs they are trying to address through gun violence.
The normalization of gun violence has already created a generation of youth who does not know a world absent the fear of mass shootings, schoolyards have become combat zones. In 2023, there were 137 shootings, 42 deaths, and 94 injuries in K-12 schools in America. Children born since the Columbine massacre have seen the incidence of and gun violence (including school shootings) steadily increase. Every year 19,000 children and teens are shot and killed or wounded and approximately 3 million are exposed to gun violence. “I never thought I’d grow up and get a bullet in my leg. It’s just like, why?” asks Zoey. How many more children must kill or be killed before America wakes up and addresses the gun violence epidemic that is plaguing the nation?
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“I saw someone get shot and I saw blood splatter everywhere and they just fell off their chair,” described the unnamed young cousin of “Trisha” who was slaughtered during the Lewiston, Maine massacre. Children are victimized in every conceivable way because of America’s love affair with guns. “Why do people do this? I was more worried about am I gonna live . . .,” wondered 10-year-old Zoey Hutchinson after being grazed by a bullet in the October 25, 2023 Lewiston, ME mass shooting. Zoey was at the local bowling alley with her mother for youth night. Fourteen-year-old Aaron Young, who also attended the youth bowling night was killed, alongside his father during the massacre. Those incidents contributed to the more than 1695 children and teens killed in the U.S. in gun related incidents in 2023.
Gun violence has become an epidemic in the U.S. with children dying in record numbers due to homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings. Inadequate laws, and conflict resolution strategies and skills, inadequate and inaccessible mental health services, and a proliferation of access to firearms have all come together to create a perfect, deadly storm. Until we develop and employ effective strategies to address conflict resolution strategies in homes, schools and communities, and ensure access to mental health services, we will continue to see a rise in the gun violence that is robbing a generation of the innocence of childhood and youth.
On September 5, 2023 a father in Lithonia, Georgia emerged from a gas station to find his 7-year-old son dead from a gunshot. It is unclear whether the gunshot was self-inflicted, or whether it was at the hands of the victim’s 6-year-old sibling, who ran from the vehicle moments after the gunshot was heard. The father had left an unsecured firearm in the vehicle with his two children inside unsupervised. In April, 2023 a Memphis, Tennessee 12-year-old boy committed suicide after shooting his sister who also succumbed to her injuries. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, and an analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mortality statistics gun deaths among U.S. kids rose 50% from 2019 to 2021. Centers for Disease Control data statistics show that boys account for 83% of gun deaths among children and teens.Children aged 12 to 17 account for 86% of gun deaths among children and teens.And, astonishingly, 184 children aged 5 and under were killed in gun violence incidents in 2021.
The disparities in firearm-related child and teen deaths do not end with differences in gender. The 2023 State of America’s Children report indicates that Black males are as much as six-times more likely than White males to be victims of homicides. In fact, in 2021, 46% of all firearm-related deaths among children and teens involved Black victims, even though only 14% of the U.S. population under 18 was Black. By comparison, only 32% of firearm-related deaths involved White victims, 17% Hispanic, and 1% Asian victims. The disproportionate impact of gun violence in the Black community, and involving children is wreaking havoc on those communities, particularly on Black male children. Black communities have a rate of attrition due to gun violence with which it can scarcely contend. In 2021, 84% of gun deaths involving Black children and teens were homicides, and 9% were suicides. Versus 66% of gun deaths involving White teens being suicides, and 24% homicides.
In 2020 and 2021 firearms contributed to more deaths of children and teens in the U.S. than any other type of injury or illness, and at a much higher rate than our peer nations. More than any other cause, even surpassing deaths due to motor vehicles, which had long been the number one cause of child deaths. The child firearm death rate in the U.S. has doubled from a low of 1.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2013 to 3.7 in 2021.
Child and teen deaths continue to rise in the U.S. and continue to garner interest on a national and world stage. Yet, we fail to make significant progress enacting common sense laws for the protection of children. “The U.S. remains stagnant on enacting adequate gun violence prevention measures.” This stagnation results in “the loss of young lives and (leaves) holes in families and communities that can never be filled. We cannot afford to continue to normalize the exceedingly persistent public health crisis of gun violence.” On February 14, 2024 a shooting injured four students at Atlanta’s Benjamin Mays High School. This occurred against the backdrop of a bill supported by the Georgia Senate to authorize a tax-free holiday for the purchase of guns and ammunition. Passage of bills of this nature do nothing to address the alarming trend of increasing child homicides, suicides, and massacres.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were 656 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023. Instead of more cops on campuses, we need increased presence of school counselors. Instead of expulsions, we need more experiences that match children with their interests in school programming, to keep them in school and engaged. Instead of juries and arrests, we need jobs, to meet children at the very basic needs they are trying to address through gun violence.
The normalization of gun violence has already created a generation of youth who does not know a world absent the fear of mass shootings, schoolyards have become combat zones. In 2023, there were 137 shootings, 42 deaths, and 94 injuries in K-12 schools in America. Children born since the Columbine massacre have seen the incidence of and gun violence (including school shootings) steadily increase. Every year 19,000 children and teens are shot and killed or wounded and approximately 3 million are exposed to gun violence. “I never thought I’d grow up and get a bullet in my leg. It’s just like, why?” asks Zoey. How many more children must kill or be killed before America wakes up and addresses the gun violence epidemic that is plaguing the nation?
“I saw someone get shot and I saw blood splatter everywhere and they just fell off their chair,” described the unnamed young cousin of “Trisha” who was slaughtered during the Lewiston, Maine massacre. Children are victimized in every conceivable way because of America’s love affair with guns. “Why do people do this? I was more worried about am I gonna live . . .,” wondered 10-year-old Zoey Hutchinson after being grazed by a bullet in the October 25, 2023 Lewiston, ME mass shooting. Zoey was at the local bowling alley with her mother for youth night. Fourteen-year-old Aaron Young, who also attended the youth bowling night was killed, alongside his father during the massacre. Those incidents contributed to the more than 1695 children and teens killed in the U.S. in gun related incidents in 2023.
Gun violence has become an epidemic in the U.S. with children dying in record numbers due to homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings. Inadequate laws, and conflict resolution strategies and skills, inadequate and inaccessible mental health services, and a proliferation of access to firearms have all come together to create a perfect, deadly storm. Until we develop and employ effective strategies to address conflict resolution strategies in homes, schools and communities, and ensure access to mental health services, we will continue to see a rise in the gun violence that is robbing a generation of the innocence of childhood and youth.
On September 5, 2023 a father in Lithonia, Georgia emerged from a gas station to find his 7-year-old son dead from a gunshot. It is unclear whether the gunshot was self-inflicted, or whether it was at the hands of the victim’s 6-year-old sibling, who ran from the vehicle moments after the gunshot was heard. The father had left an unsecured firearm in the vehicle with his two children inside unsupervised. In April, 2023 a Memphis, Tennessee 12-year-old boy committed suicide after shooting his sister who also succumbed to her injuries. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, and an analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mortality statistics gun deaths among U.S. kids rose 50% from 2019 to 2021. Centers for Disease Control data statistics show that boys account for 83% of gun deaths among children and teens.Children aged 12 to 17 account for 86% of gun deaths among children and teens.And, astonishingly, 184 children aged 5 and under were killed in gun violence incidents in 2021.
The disparities in firearm-related child and teen deaths do not end with differences in gender. The 2023 State of America’s Children report indicates that Black males are as much as six-times more likely than White males to be victims of homicides. In fact, in 2021, 46% of all firearm-related deaths among children and teens involved Black victims, even though only 14% of the U.S. population under 18 was Black. By comparison, only 32% of firearm-related deaths involved White victims, 17% Hispanic, and 1% Asian victims. The disproportionate impact of gun violence in the Black community, and involving children is wreaking havoc on those communities, particularly on Black male children. Black communities have a rate of attrition due to gun violence with which it can scarcely contend. In 2021, 84% of gun deaths involving Black children and teens were homicides, and 9% were suicides. Versus 66% of gun deaths involving White teens being suicides, and 24% homicides.
In 2020 and 2021 firearms contributed to more deaths of children and teens in the U.S. than any other type of injury or illness, and at a much higher rate than our peer nations. More than any other cause, even surpassing deaths due to motor vehicles, which had long been the number one cause of child deaths. The child firearm death rate in the U.S. has doubled from a low of 1.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2013 to 3.7 in 2021.
Child and teen deaths continue to rise in the U.S. and continue to garner interest on a national and world stage. Yet, we fail to make significant progress enacting common sense laws for the protection of children. “The U.S. remains stagnant on enacting adequate gun violence prevention measures.” This stagnation results in “the loss of young lives and (leaves) holes in families and communities that can never be filled. We cannot afford to continue to normalize the exceedingly persistent public health crisis of gun violence.” On February 14, 2024 a shooting injured four students at Atlanta’s Benjamin Mays High School. This occurred against the backdrop of a bill supported by the Georgia Senate to authorize a tax-free holiday for the purchase of guns and ammunition. Passage of bills of this nature do nothing to address the alarming trend of increasing child homicides, suicides, and massacres.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were 656 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023. Instead of more cops on campuses, we need increased presence of school counselors. Instead of expulsions, we need more experiences that match children with their interests in school programming, to keep them in school and engaged. Instead of juries and arrests, we need jobs, to meet children at the very basic needs they are trying to address through gun violence.
The normalization of gun violence has already created a generation of youth who does not know a world absent the fear of mass shootings, schoolyards have become combat zones. In 2023, there were 137 shootings, 42 deaths, and 94 injuries in K-12 schools in America. Children born since the Columbine massacre have seen the incidence of and gun violence (including school shootings) steadily increase. Every year 19,000 children and teens are shot and killed or wounded and approximately 3 million are exposed to gun violence. “I never thought I’d grow up and get a bullet in my leg. It’s just like, why?” asks Zoey. How many more children must kill or be killed before America wakes up and addresses the gun violence epidemic that is plaguing the nation?
"History will not forget," said UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
The United Nations human rights expert assigned to the Palestinian territories illegally occupied by Israel is calling on countries around the world to send military forces to end the genocidal Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
Since March 2024, "I've warned the UN I serve at great personal cost: the destruction of Gaza's health system is clear proof of genocidal intent," Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said on social media Wednesday. "I'm in disbelief at its paralysis. States must break the blockade, send NAVIES with aid, and stop the genocide. History will not forget."
Albanese also shared her new joint statement with Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, special rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. They said that "in addition to bearing witness to an ongoing genocide we are also bearing witness to a 'medicide,' a sinister component of the intentional creation of conditions calculated to destroy Palestinians in Gaza which constitutes an act of genocide."
"Deliberate attacks on health and care workers, and health facilities, which are gross violations of international humanitarian law, must stop now," the pair continued. "There is a moral imperative for the international community to end the carnage and allow the people of Gaza to live on their land without fear of attack, killing, and starvation, and free from permanent occupation and apartheid."
Their comments came as a growing number of governments are recognizing the state of Palestine or threatening to do so. In a Wednesday interview with The Guardian, Albanese stressed that the renewed push for Palestinian statehood should not "distract the attention from where it should be: the genocide."
"Ending the question of Palestine in line with international law is possible and necessary: End the genocide today, end the permanent occupation this year, and end apartheid," she said. "This is what's going to guarantee freedom and equal rights for everyone, regardless of the way they want to live—in two states or one state, they will have to decide."
As Common Dreams reported earlier Thursday, Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, claimed that the Israeli and U.S. governments have approved an expansion of settlements in the West Bank, which he said "finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize."
Meanwhile, in Gaza, the 22-month Israeli assault has left the coastal enclave in ruins and killed at least 61,776 Palestinians and wounded 154,906 others—though experts warn the real figures are likely far higher. Those who have survived so far are struggling to access essentials, including food, largely due to Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid and killings of aid-seekers.
On Thursday, over 100 groups—including ActionAid, American Friends Service Committee, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, and Save the Children—released a letter stressing that since Israel imposed registration rules in early March, most nongovernmental organizations "have been unable to deliver a single truck of lifesaving supplies."
"This obstruction has left millions of dollars' worth of food, medicine, water, and shelter items stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt, while Palestinians are being starved," the letter notes. As of Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry put the hunger-related death toll at 239, including 106 children.
Both the registration process and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation "aim to block impartial aid, exclude Palestinian actors, and replace trusted humanitarian organizations with mechanisms that serve political and military objectives," the letter argues, noting that Israel is moving to "escalate its military offensive and deepen its occupation in Gaza, making clear these measures are part of a broader strategy to entrench control and erase Palestinian presence."
The coalition called on all governments to "press Israel to end the weaponization of aid," insist that NGOS not be "forced to share sensitive personal information," and "demand the immediate and unconditional opening of all land crossings and conditions for the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian aid."
During an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting on Sunday, Riyad Mansour, the state of Palestine's permanent observer to the UN, formally requested "an immediate international protection force to save the Palestinian people from certain death."
In response, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the US-based advocacy group DAWN, said in a Tuesday statement, "Now that Palestine has formally requested protection forces, the UN General Assembly should move urgently to mandate such a force under a Uniting for Peace resolution."
"Israel has made clear for the past two years that no amount of pleading, pressure, or negotiation will end its atrocities and deliberate starvation in Gaza; only international peacekeeping forces can achieve that," she added.
"Who else sends ICE at the same time while having a conversation like this? Someone who is weak. Someone who's broken. Someone whose weakness is masquerading as a strength," said Newsom.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday struck a defiant tone during a political rally in Los Angeles aimed at promoting a ballot initiative that would allow the state legislature to redraw the Golden State's electoral maps.
During his speech, Newsom emphasized his preference to having an independent commission draw up districts in California and across the country. However, he said that U.S. President Donald Trump's push to have Texas Republicans redraw their state's map in the middle of the decade to gain five more Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives has left him with no choice but to return the favor.
"You have poked the bear, and we will punch back," Newsom said during the speech, addressing Trump directly.
The California governor then explained why doing nothing in response to Trump's pressure on Texas is not an option.
"[Trump] doesn't play by a different set of rules—he doesn't believe in the rules," Newsom said. "And as a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves of the way things have been done. It's not enough to just hold hands, have a candlelight vigil, and talk about way the world should be. We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt, and we have got to meet fire with fire!"
Newsom also pointed out that several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials had stationed themselves nearby where California Democrats were holding their rally, which he called a deliberate attempt at intimidation.
However, Newsom said that instead of subduing lawmakers and advocates with the mass deportation force, Trump was only exposing his weakness.
"He is a failed president," Newsom declared. "Who else sends ICE at the same time while having a conversation like this? Someone who is weak. Someone who's broken. Someone whose weakness is masquerading as a strength. The most unpopular president in modern history."
Newsom encouraged voters in his state to approve a ballot initiative this coming November 4 that would allow the redrawing of California's congressional map on a temporary basis before returning to the independent commission that has long been used in the state starting in 2030.
"Trump's back-to-school message to America's families is crystal clear: Don't expect help, just expect less," said one expert.
Families of students across the United States are facing significantly higher prices for basic supplies as the new school year begins, a cost burden that a new analysis blames on President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs and the massive Republican budget package he signed into law last month.
The analysis, conducted by The Century Foundation (TCF) and Groundwork Collaborative, estimates that prices for supplies such as index cards have surged by more than 40% this year.
Lunch staples have also gotten more expensive, with U.S. families set to pay roughly $163 more on average for juice boxes, strawberries, and other such items this year, according to the new analysis, which characterized the higher costs as a "back-to-school tax" imposed by the president.
"President Trump's policies are forcing families to foot higher bills for back-to-school essentials from binders and lunch-box staples to clothes, shoes, and even laptops," said TCF senior fellow Rachel West. "From his reckless tariffs to his budget law slashing food assistance and federal student loans, Trump's back-to-school message to America's families is crystal clear: Don't expect help, just expect less."
The analysis was released just as new economic data further underscored the impact of Trump's tariffs on prices across the economy, with wholesale prices registering their largest monthly gain since June 2022.
TCF and Groundwork's findings align with a recent survey by the research firm Deloitte, which found that nearly half of U.S. parents and caregivers believe lunch costs on school days will be higher this year than in 2024.
Liz Pancotti, Groundwork's managing director of policy and advocacy, said Thursday that "President Trump's tax and tariff policies have turned the back-to-school season into a budgeting nightmare for hardworking American families."
"From lunch boxes and notebooks to juice boxes and pencils, parents are being squeezed at every turn—paying more for the school supplies and meals their kids need to succeed," said Pancotti. "No family should have to struggle to afford the basics while the wealthy and well-connected cash in on massive tax breaks they do not need."
"Trump's tax and tariff policies have turned the back-to-school season into a budgeting nightmare for hardworking American families."
The budget law that Trump signed last month is set to deliver trillions of dollars in tax breaks largely to the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations while making unprecedented cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid.
Those programs are used in states across the country to determine eligibility for free or reduced-cost school meals, and cuts inflicted by the Trump-GOP law are expected to leave more than 18 million children across the U.S. without access to free school meals in the coming years.
"President Trump's policies—including his erratic, punitive tariffs—are squeezing families' budgets as they prepare to return to school," TCF and Groundwork said Thursday. "Not only has Trump failed to keep his promises to tackle high prices, but his massive budget law will soon drive costs even higher for back-to-school essentials as its cuts to programs that children, families, and college students depend on take hold."