Many of the teens who took part in the study said they don’t feel safe hanging out in their local parks or walking home from school.
For Black and Latino teenagers who live around constant gun violence, safety is always on their minds, yet that concern sometimes leads them to think they need a gun to survive.
That’s what a
The research is part of Project Unloaded’s larger push, called “Guns Change the Story,” to help change the narrative around gun safety. It concluded that “fact-based education” can change teenagers’ views on gun ownership and risks.
While gun violence remains a concern in urban areas across the country, some of the data from the end of 2023 was encouraging. Gun deaths decreased for the second straight year with 18,761 (excluding suicides) compared with 20,389 in 2022. The U.S. saw a 12.9% decrease in homicides in 2023 compared with 2022. It could end up being the largest national decline in homicides on record.
But even as numbers go down, the burden of gun deaths weighs heavily on communities of color, especially Black ones. That includes teenagers like the ones who participated in the study who simply want to be safe.
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The post Teens say guns make neighborhoods less safe, but they still want one, study finds appeared first on TheGrio.
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