Teens and Illegal Guns: Overview

From: Y-Press
Series: Teens and Guns: Illegal Uses
Length: 03:37

In the last decade in Indiana, about 130 murders were committed by teens, and 79 percent of those involved a firearm. After a Y-Presser lost her cousin to a gunshot, Y-Press decided to investigate how teens access guns in urban areas of our state. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Teens and Illegal Guns: Overview
From: Y-Press

Gunphoto_small

Homicides committed by young people, ages 12 through 17, peaked nationwide in the 1990s, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In Indiana, over 300 teenagers committed murder in that decade, and three quarters of them used a gun. Between 2000 and 2010, only about 130 murders were committed by teens, but 79 percent of those involved a firearm. Homicide is only a small part of the story, Y-Press journalists learned when they set out to report on teens and illegal gun use in Indianapolis.

For this report, Y-Press journalists spoke with police officers from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD), and inmates at the maximum security Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility in Pendleton, Indiana. This story was written by Carmela Verderame, 12, and reported by Peter Shirley, 18.

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Piece Description

Homicides committed by young people, ages 12 through 17, peaked nationwide in the 1990s, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In Indiana, over 300 teenagers committed murder in that decade, and three quarters of them used a gun. Between 2000 and 2010, only about 130 murders were committed by teens, but 79 percent of those involved a firearm. Homicide is only a small part of the story, Y-Press journalists learned when they set out to report on teens and illegal gun use in Indianapolis.

For this report, Y-Press journalists spoke with police officers from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD), and inmates at the maximum security Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility in Pendleton, Indiana. This story was written by Carmela Verderame, 12, and reported by Peter Shirley, 18.

Broadcast History

WFYI (90.1 FM) Indianapolis, March 5, 2012 during Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Transcript

PETER SHIRLEY: On New Year’s Eve, 2011, 20-year-old Dominique Corder was visiting his grandmother on the Near Northside of Indianapolis. After midnight, he noticed an unfamiliar car parked in front of her house.

According to police reports, Corder went outside to ask the driver to move his car, and a shot was fired. Forty-five minutes later, Corder was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospital. He was a quarterback for Central Lakes College in Minnesota, and had no criminal record.

His was the first homicide in Indianapolis last year. The shooting suspect, Mark Price Jr, plead guilty to carrying a handgun without a license, and aggravated battery. Price is serving time in prison.

Corder and Price were both 20. But in the past decade, Indianapolis police officers recovered more than twelve hundred guns from people under 18 during arrests.

ANTHONY: That’s how it was in the hood. Ev...
Read the full transcript

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

Homicides committed by young people, ages 12 through 17, peaked nationwide in the 1990s, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In Indiana, over 300 teenagers committed murder in that decade, and three quarters of them used a gun. In the last decade, only about 130 murders were committed by teens, but 79 percent of those involved a firearm. Homicide is only a small part of the story, Y-Press journalists learned when they set out to report on teens and illegal gun use in Indianapolis. Peter Shirley, age 18, has this report.

OUTRO:

Y-Press is an Indianapolis-based youth-media organization focused on reporting teen perspectives. To learn more, and listen to the entire series on teens and guns, visit www.ypress.org.

Additional Credits

Editorial oversight by Andrea Muraskin and Lynn Sygiel, with help from Madelyn Morgan. This report was produced in collaboration with Marianne Holland at WFYI (90.1 FM) Indianapolis.