It has been said that "there is nothing worse than unemployable, frustrated youth."
This is an inescapable truth that applies to the 70 percent of all gun violence deaths in the United States that are perpetrated by indigent young minority males on young minority males. In urban centers across America, handgun violence is linked to race and to the socioeconomic status of our youth.
To highlight the devastation of this violence, the Children's Defense Fund documented, between 1979 and 2009, 116,385 children died due to gun violence, 47 percent were African-American. In 2008 and 2009, one child was injured by a gun every 31 minutes, equal to filling 1,375 classrooms of 25 students each.
Now is the time for our gun control measures to be focused on the overwhelming handgun violence in our cities. The NY SAFE law recently enacted is a strong step in bringing to an end the killing fields many of our neighborhoods have become. We must seize this opportunity and address the causes of minority youth violence.
Our society has the bureaucratic infrastructure in place to dramatically reduce gun violence. There is a tremendous need for successful youth programs and services in minority neighborhoods, where youth unemployment rates are as high as 50 percent and where violence at home is as common as on the streets. We must now expand and improve on programs focused on building minds and communities.
MARCOS A. CRESPO
Member of Assembly
85th Assembly District
The Bronx