NCJ Number
182772
Date Published
April 2000
Length
59 pages
Annotation
This is a report on the day-to-day experience of gun violence in 100 U.S. cities in which 4,001 persons are known to have died as a result of gun violence in the 11 months following the killings at the Columbine High School in Colorado.
Abstract
The report lists by date the name and age of each victim in the 92 cities that had fatal shootings, except where city or police department policy does not permit the release of this information, or in cases in which the victim could not be identified or the victim's age could not be determined. For 62 of the cities, the report also includes brief descriptions of the circumstances surrounding a selected shooting incident. For the 92 cities as a group, no days during the reporting period were free of firearms deaths. Of the 3,852 victims for whom ages are known, 8 percent were juveniles, 17 years of age and under. Young adults, 18 to 25 years of age, accounted for 35 percent of the total fatalities. The youngest victims in the report were 2 years old; the oldest victim was 97 years old. A bar graph shows the age distribution of the 3,852 fatalities. Officials in the cities surveyed were asked to indicate, if possible, whether the fatal shootings they reported were accidents or suicides. The cities able to provide this information reported a total of 31 accidental shootings and 658 suicides. Because so many of the cities were able to submit information on gun-related homicides only, not accidents or suicides, it is likely that significant numbers of gun-related deaths, beyond those contained in this report, have occurred in these cities during the report period. The report advises that it is time for the U.S. Congress to do its part in protecting America's children and making cities safer for all residents. Mayors, both Democrats and Republicans, have appealed to the U.S. House of Representatives to accept measures that would close existing legal loopholes in gun-control legislation in conference with the U.S. Senate, which last year passed such gun safety measures.