Introduction

Children are the witnesses, victims, and perpetrators of violence that has become increasingly lethal in our society. Over the past decade homicide rates among adolescents have increased dramatically and at a pace exceeding that of nonfatal assaultive behavior (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1994; U.S. Department of Justice, 1992). Moreover, suicide rates among adolescents have more than tripled since the early 1950s (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1995; Hollinger & Offer, 1981). Younger and younger children are represented among the perpetrators and the victims of these events (U.S. Department of Justice, 1990,1992). Firearms are involved in an increasing proportion of interpersonal and self-directed violence affecting children. These trends have had a direct impact on schools for violence and its consequences, and the implements of violence have spilled into classrooms, school hallways, and playgrounds. With guns and their associated lethal violence increasingly finding their way into the lives of school-age children, the traditional view of schools as safe havens from violence can no longer be sustained.

In this chapter we describe the problem of firearm injuries and violence among school-age children; discuss prevention strategies; suggest a scientific, research-based process for identifying effective solutions; and public health policies for moving forward. A major theme is that no school is an island: What happens to children inside and on the way to and from school reflects what is happening in surrounding communities. Thus, if we are to understand the problem of guns and gun violence in schools we must first understand this problem in its larger societal context. Figure 6.1 illustrates the overlap among the domains of children, guns, and schools and how the components of this problem are embedded in the surrounding community. All three of these domains can contribute to the problem of gun violence in and around schools. First, the behavior of children in and around schools is strongly influenced by social and psychological influences that occur outside of school. Second, the availability of and attitudes toward firearms within children's families and the community are likely to be an important influence on the firearm violence problem in and around schools. Third, the policies and actions schools take can have an influence on this problem. Fourth, the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of communities themselves can influence all these domains.