CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Teen gun violence spikes between the ages of 17 and 21, mainly affecting boys and young men, according to an expert who has studied the trends for several years.
Daniel Webster, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, said the highest rates of teen gun violence are in the South. He attributes this to higher gun ownership, fewer restrictions on guns, and a lack of safe storage.
"Teenagers are more impulsive, their prefrontal cortex of their brain hasn't fully formed yet to really slow them down in their thinking, uh, understand the consequences of the actions that they're going to take," Webster said.
"And when you have individuals like that. Having a loaded firearm readily available can be the difference between life and death," Webster said.
Webster said one way to determine if teens are at a higher risk is to look at how they are doing in school. He cited a study he conducted of 70 men who had been involved in a homicide with a gun.
"Out of those 70 individuals, only one had graduated high school … only one out of 70 and we looked deeper into their background and they are usually one or two or even three grades behind when they dropped out of high school. And they had unmet social and behavioral needs. For them to be successful in school," Webster said.
Webster said there are intervention programs that he has seen decrease teen gun violence.
I reached out to CCISD to see if they have any intervention programs. They did not get back to us.
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