The Vault

1993 Youth Murder Rate Attracts Doctors' Attention

Pediatric Doctors Call For Strict Gun Control As Murder Rate Approaches Records

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A troubling rash of violence has plagued Chicago so far in 2008, much of it taking the lives of youth and teenagers, and much of it committed with guns.

Homicides were up for the first four months of this year, and in just one weekend in late April, there were 36 shootings in the city, nine of them fatal.



 Tracking Summer Shootings In Chicago





 On May 10, CBS 2 brought together resident and community leaders Saturday night for a town hall meeting to talk about ways to keep everyone safe.

The seriousness of the recent scourge of violence is universally agreed upon, but that is far from the case for solutions. Some argue the best solution to gun violence lies in more restrictive gun control laws. Others say the solution is enacting a concealed carry law so that more of the population is armed and residents can protect themselves.

Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 32-year-old ban on handguns in the District of Columbia, declaring that Americans have a right to own guns for hunting and protection. The gun lobby immediately sued to have a similar ban in Chicago overturned.

Regardless, despite the recent spike in violence, the murder rate is far from an all-time high. In 2007, there were 435 murders citywide, and in 2003 – when Chicago led the nation in homicides – there were 598.

In 1993, there were 931 murders citywide. It was the first year that the total dropped after spiking at 943 in 1992, but still only 39 fewer than the highest tally in history, which came in 1974.

As Joan Lovett explained in this report from Aug. 4, 1993, the problem of youth violence was so severe that summer that the medical community was calling it a health crisis.

The trauma unit at the former Cook County Hospital braced for hot weekend nights. When it gets hot out, teens get restless and gang violence erupts.

On one such night, a Friday evening in July 1993, Nestor Cruz, 16, was wounded by gunfire. The trauma unit, already jammed, made room for Cruz at 10:30 p.m.

Cruz's life was saved at the hospital. Police said the shooting that wounded him was gang-related, but some doctors were arguing that the problem lay with guns.

"Most people in the course of daily life don't see a stream of people coming in riddled with bullets," said Dr. Katherine Christoffel of Children's Memorial Hospital. "Some unfortunately do."

"At the trauma centers around the country, the children who are being shot, are being shot in greater and greater numbers, and by more and more lethal weapons."

Between 1970 and 1990, the number of children killed by guns in the United States doubled, topping out at 4,891 in 1990. In 1992, Chicago lost 24 children under 15 to gunfire. Many more were maimed.

Michelle Rodriguez took a bullet in the back when a 3rd grade classmate fired a gun at school.

"My friend said a kid was pretending he was shooting all the girls, and there was this bullet inside and it bounced and hit me," she said.

Tanz said he did not see children with gunshot wounds when he began working at Children's Memorial Hospital in the 1970s, but in 1992, Children's lost six children to gunfire and treated five times that many.

"This is a medical problem, and it's a public health problem," Tanz said. "It's of a scope larger than polio in the early 1950s."

The American Academy of Pediatrics was calling for sweeping actions. They wanted a ban on the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns. Tanz agreed.

"If we got rid of that weapon, the teenage arguments – over girls, over a bottle of beer, over whatever teenagers fight about – couldn't escalate to gunfire," Tanz said.

"Are we interested in the children or are we interested in the guns?" Tanz asked. "If we're interested in the guns, then we can kiss the children goodbye."

The American Academy of Pediatrics maintained its call for a ban on handguns as of early June, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruling has likely rendered any such ban unconstitutional. Meanwhile, many states have passed concealed carry laws, which proponents credit with reducing crime.

Meanwhile, while homicide may be down in numbers, the need to stop violence in Chicago and other major cities is a topic still as pressing as ever.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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