Regardless of your views on the Second Amendment, it's impossible to ignore the scourge of gun violence in America's inner-city neighborhoods.
Gun crime in Chicago costs the community about $2.5 billion per year, according to research released last spring by the University of Chicago Crime Lab (Tribune). Also, according to the Crime Lab, at least 80 percent of Chicago murder victims in 2008 died from gunshot wounds.
In an effort to combat the almost daily occurence of gun violence in the city, the university's Crime Lab along with several area non-governmental organizations is launching a pilot program (University of Chicago Crime Lab press release) with hundreds of adolescent boys in 15 Chicago schools.
Dubbed "Becoming a Man -- Sports Edition," the $1 million program combines cognitive behavior therapy with sports to help steer at-risk youth away from violence. At the heart of the program is the recognition that a large number of adolescent boys in Chicago lack positive male role models, need better social skill development and help identifying and responding to their emotions.
Harold Pollack, a University of Chicago researcher, assured Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ) that it's "not a bunch of white coats" doing an intervention that "would be hard to replicate in a realistic setting." He hopes to roll out the program nationwide if it proves a success.
- Parent/guardian consent form for BAM program (PDF)
- News article about the new program (Tribune)
- Links to various Illinois gun laws and regulations (Illinois State Police)
- Article about US Supreme Court gun case McDonald v. Chicago (AP, via Huffington Post)
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