Raising Safe Kids 30 Proven Ways To Protect Your Child From Becoming Lost, Abducted, Abused, or Victimized by Jan Wagner, Yell Dyno Founder, featuring a foreword by Gavin de Becker, best selling author of The Gift of Fear. To download Gavin's Intro Acrobat pdf format - 56K This indispensable handbook, Raising Safe Kids on personal safety, is included in every Yello Dyno Pro Curriculum.

Weapons Statistics

So while you may be able to keep your son from owning one (a gun), if you try to talk him out of wanting one, you are up against a pretty strong argument. "You mean I shouldn't want a device that grants me power and identity, makes me feel dangerous and safe at the same time, instantly makes me the dominant male, and connects me to my evolutionary essence? Come on, Mom, get real!"
Protecting The Gift - Gavin De Becker, Little Brow and Company.

• In 93% of sexual assault victimizations the NIBRS date provided information on the most serious weapon used in the incident. In 77% of sexual assaults where the weapon information was available, the only weapon involved was what the FBI labeled a personal weapon such as hands, feet, or fists. A firearm was used or bandished in just 2% of sexual assault victimizations. Other non-personal weapons such as a knife or club, were used or bandished in another 6% of sexual assaults In 14% of victimizations the records indicate that no weapon was involved.
- Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement, 7/00, ICJ 182990, US Department of Justice

• The use of a weapon other than a personal weapon increased with the age of the victim
- Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement, 7/00, ICJ 182990, US Department of Justice

• About 14% of child victimizers carried a weapon during the violent crime, compared to nearly 1/2 of those who victimized adults.
-BJS Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991.

• Weapons: 1997 CDC survey, reveal that 28% of adolescent boys carried a weapon-gun, a knife, or a club-in the previous month, with 13% carrying a weapon to school in the previous month. They do so primarily because they feel threatened and can't count on adults to protect them.
- Lost Boys, Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them, James Garbarino, Ph.D.

• With at least one gun in nearly half the households in the country, with two-thirds of our teenagers reporting they could get a gun in an hour, with virtually every kid exposed to vivid movie and television scenarios legitimizing violence, we live in dangerous times.
- Lost Boys, Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them, James Garbarino, Ph.D.

• Nearly 30% of our boys attending high school carry a potentially lethal weapon around with them as they go about their business in the community, and 12.5 % of our boys have carried a weapon to school.
- Lost Boys, Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them, James Garbarino, Ph.D.

• The Journal of the American Medical Association: 1.2 million elementary school aged latchkey kids had access to guns at home. In 1969 the % of high school students who have cheated on a test increased from 34% to 68%.
- Lost Boys, Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them, James Garbarino, Ph.D.

• 46% of males, and 26% of females reported they had been in physical fights. (Bureau of Justice, 2001)

• Those in the lower grades reported being in twice as many fights as those in the higher grades. However, there is a lower rate of serious violent crimes in the elementary level than in the middle or high schools. (Bureau of Justice, 2001)

• Teenagers say revenge is the strongest motivation for school shootings. (Bureau of Justice, 2001)

• 86% said, "other kids picking on them, making fun of them or bullying them" causes teenagers to turn to lethal violence in the schools. (Bureau of Justice, 2001)

• 87% said shootings are motivated by a desire to "get back at those who have hurt them." (Bureau of Justice, 2001)

• Students recognize that being a victim of abuse at home or witnessing others being abused at home may cause violence in school. (Bureau of Justice, 2001)

• 61% said students shoot others because they have been victims of physical abuse at home. (Bureau of Justice, 2001)

• 54% said witnessing physical abuse at home can lead to violence in school. (Bureau of Justice, 2001)

Suggested Publications:

Selected State Legislation: A guide for Effective State Laws to Protect Children-The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, May 1993 Third Addition Current Trends in Child Abuse Reporting and Fatalities: The Results of the 1997 Annual Fifty State Survey.
-National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse (NCPCA) Chicago, Il

Childhood Trama, the Neurobiology of Adaptation, and Use-dependent Development of the Brain: How States Become Traits.
-Bruce D. Perry, CIVITAS Child Trama Programs, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX