More than 4,000 children and teenagers have been shot this year, according to data published by the Gun Violence Archive (GVA). At least 6,170 children and teenagers were shot in 2022, according to GVA.
I said even if it's up to 17 it's misleading. A lot of those 16, 17 year old shooting victims are gang members being shot in shoot outs. Which is a fundamentally different problem from a 9 year old being shot. And lumping those things together does a disservice.
Teenagers are still children. They don't have developed brains. Also take into account that teenagers are growing up more slowly than they did in the past. It is not disingenuous to put them together in the same statistic.
Commenter below mentions that the statistic used is Americans under the age of 18. They are not adults mentally or legally. They are children.
Just like quarterly profits the peak of human society aims for a high score every single time. Numbers must go up. ALL NUMBERS must go up. Always. Capitalism is the best.
He doesn't care. The "they include 19 year olds" is just the talking point he's been taught when those figures are mentioned, because sometimes they're described as "children", rather than "children and teenagers", which means they can attack the data as misleading.
There's no concious thought behind it, it's just trigger and response. That's why they'll say the same things even when the data is correctly described.
When they do try and come up with their own excuses, they're usually terrible. I've genuinely had one argue that "17 year olds aren't teenagers" by claiming that when the word "teenagers" was coined, it was only supposed to mean 13 and 14 year olds and we were somehow being dishonest for using the definition that absolutely everyone in the entire world works with.
But they don't need their arguments to make sense or their lies about keeping people safe to come true because they intend to drag the conversation out forever.
Unfortunately for them, the kids who grew up among the school shootings will vote one day and they'll have no issue removing the second amendment entirely.
How does trying to prattle on about not liking grouping 17 year olds together with 9 year olds a pro-gun argument? That would only even vaguely make sense if your stance was "yeah, but 17 year olds deserve to get shot and killed"
Oh I understand now, you think the 17 year olds don't count because they're black. Here I was thinking you were reprehensible.
I guess you haven't looked into how many of those 17 year old statistics took their fathers poorly secured gun (that was for "keeping his family safe" of course) and blew their brains out in the living room.
Let's hope the poor innocent gun didn't get scuffed or scratched when it fell to the floor since it's clear what was more important.
I wonder how many of them used to be "responsible gun owners" who taught their children to "treat guns with respect", not knowing they were teaching their kid how to load and fire the round that would kill them?
Oh well, I'm sure it will never happen to you and I'm sure those fathers never thought it would never happen to them.
There's no need to be coy -- even the most deeply stupid Americans know what terms like "gang members", "thugs" and "urban crime" are innuendo for, because deeply stupid Americans are the target demographic.
If you want to get upset at people saying it out loud, you're going to have to dig up Lee Atwater and throw a tantrum at his rotting, cancerous corpse.