Well Duh!

[url]http://www.sunspot.net/news/yahoo/bal-md.handgun29nov29.story?coll=bal%2Dnewsaol%2Dheadlines[/url]

(Full story above, below is edited for Forum)
[i]
State worst in gun study
Md. has highest rate of youth handgun killings, report says; Accidents, suicide excluded; Some are surprised by ranking, given toughness of laws


A child is more likely to commit homicide with a handgun or be a victim of it in Maryland than in any other state, according to a study issued yesterday.

In its report, the nonprofit Violence Policy Center said Maryland leads the nation in the rate of children involved in handgun killings.

Louisiana and Illinois ranked second and third in rates of children killed in handgun violence and rates of children killing with guns.

The Washington-based group, which advocates stronger gun laws, studied handgun killings from 1995 through 1999 among youths through age 17. The statistics include only homicides, not accidents or suicides.

Karen Brock, author of the study, "Kids in the Line of Fire," acknowledged surprise at Maryland's rankings, noting that the state has some of the toughest handgun laws in the nation. She said Maryland's laws have targeted handgun sales but apparently have not sufficiently reduced the number of handguns in the homes.

"In reality, it's the presence of handguns in the home that is really showing up here," she said. "If we have a lot of handguns in the homes, there is going to be more handgun homicide."

In Maryland, the rate of youths killed with handguns was 2.86 out of 100,000 averaged annually over the five-year study period. Louisiana's rate was 2.40, and Illinois' was 2.24.

Tenth-ranking Georgia had a rate less than half of Maryland's.

Also in Maryland, an average of 1.98 out of 100,000 youths committed homicide with a handgun, the study found. Louisiana's rate was 1.74, and Illinois' was 1.72.

Daniel Webster, co-director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said he would have expected Maryland to rank high on both indexes, but not highest.

[b]The state also struggles with teen-age pregnancy, child poverty and low-birth-weight babies, problems of "social distress" that tend to correspond with gun violence, he said. [/b]

Webster said closer analysis would probably also reveal that teen-agers 15 and older account for the majority of the killings and that most are tied to drug dealing, robberies and altercations.

Some of the study's major points:


[b]In Maryland, the majority of youths killed in handgun violence (168 out of 182) were black.[/b]

About 20 percent of victims in Maryland were killed by family members, another 20 percent were killed by strangers, and more than half were killed by acquaintances.


"Were making progress," said Jamal Moses, who leads Baltimore Rising. "We're getting children who previously were not in school back in school. We're working with parents around issues of substance abuse. We're getting youths jobs."

One of the major problems, he said, is that teen-agers lack constructive things to do after school.

"Parents are either dysfunctional, not present or incarcerated, so adequate guidance is not something that the older youths can count on in their lives."
[/i]

Not trying to "Race bait" here, but it is pretty astounding that 168 out of 182 or 92% were black. Doesn't say if blacks killed blacks, but the "study" leads one to believe that "guns in the home" kill "kids in the home."  Also amazing that the Anti's nearly admit that "gun laws" don't work.  

Shocker!
This just means that more gun laws are needed in Maryland.  Isn't that always the standard answer from the BRADY CENTER TO PREVENT SELF-DEFENSE?

The above summarizes all symptoms of a social problem, but they blame the gun as the cause. I don't know what the stats are for the number of guns in Georgia, but I would imagine that it is pretty high. Remember the city of Kennesaw, they required that every household have a gun? So according to this simplistic analogy, there is sky-high ownership of guns Georgia and it should cause a sky-high number of child murders by handguns. The people in Maryland are blaming the gun because it is quick and dirty, and easy.

Just one of the many reasons why I don't live in Maryland!!!

It's amazing how they are willing to blame almost everything on guns.  I suppose it was the gun that knocked up all those teenage girls.  I can't believe there are dumbasses that actually buy into this crap!

i grew up in MD and moved to GA when i got off active duty. a WHOLE new world.

Maryland should ban all guns, just like we're trying to do in California. That will surely solve the problem.