For Kids Sake...


UCAN'S Young Leaders Urge Adults to Make Neighborhoods Safer.


 

Teens speak against gun violence. Ashley Brown, a 16-year old sophomore at Hyde Park Academy High School, (at left and below with Nina Vinik, Executive Director of the Legal Community Against Violence, and Police Chief Scott Knight, President, International Association of Chiefs of Police),  addressed a gathering of foundation, business, and corporate leaders at the first ever "For Kids Sake... at home, school, and in the community" forum co-sponsored by the Field Foundation and the Joyce Foundation on January 24.

Remembering three friends who were shot in one year, Ashley shared telling statistics from UCAN's 8th annual Teen Gun Survey, a national overview of teen concerns about gun violence.

  • 35% of teens nationwide know someone who's been shot: 59% of African-American teens, 47% of Latino teens, and 24% of Caucasian teens.
  • 56% of teens nationwide believe that the government wouldn't care if they were a victim of gun violence.
  • 67% of teens nationwide believe there should be a ban on assault weapons for anyone who is not in the military or a police officer: 73% of African-American teens; 61% of Latino teens; 66% of Caucasian teens. 

In closing, Ashley shared recommendations from her peers to help deal with the epidemic of gun violence:

 

Women of American, remove the guns from your home. They don't make you safer. This is the suggestion of 56% of teen girls like me who fear being shot someday.

All adults, please listen to the voices of over half of American teens who believe America would be safer without handguns.

Be the change that you speak of and support violence prevention programs! 56% of my peers across the country request this. It is the only hope that things will get better and we won't have to see our little brothers get beat up
just walking home from school.