Kids in the Line of Fire

• Ranked 12th in rate of children murdered with a handgun, 1.19 per 100,000
• Ranked 12th in rate of children who murder with a handgun, 1.11 per 100,000
• Ranked 1st in percentage of child murders involving a handgun, 67.2 percent

Children and Handgun Homicides

For the five-year period of 1995 through 1999, 45 children aged 1 to 17 years were the victims of handgun homicide in Mississippi. Of these children, 30.6 percent were murdered by another child with a handgun, where the ages were known (11 out of 36 incidents).

Race of Child Handgun Homicide Victims

Child handgun homicide victims whose race was identified (45 victims) included 7 white victims and 38 black victims. Unfortunately, Hispanic ethnicity could not be determined because of the inadequacy of data collection and reporting.

Victim to Offender Relationship

Where the relationship was known, 13.2 percent of child victims were killed by a family member with a handgun (5 out of 38). Of these victims, 20.0 percent were children murdered by a parent. An additional 20.0 percent of the children were murdered by a stepparent. Overall, another 18.4 percent were killed by strangers (7 victims) and 2.6 percent were killed by a friend or romantic partner (boyfriend, girlfriend, or homosexual partner) (1 victim). The largest percentage of child victims, 65.8 percent, were killed by an acquaintance (25 victims).

Homicide Victims and Weapons

For homicides in which the weapon could be identified, 73.4 percent of child victims (47 out of 64) were shot and killed with a gun. Of those, 95.7 percent (45 victims) were killed with a handgun. For homicides where both the victim and the shooter were children, 85.7 percent of incidents involved a firearm (12 out of 14), with 91.7 percent of those involving a handgun (11 victims).

Homicide Victims and Circumstance

From 1995 to 1999, there were 29 incidents in which the circumstance of the handgun homicide of the child victim could be identified. Of these, 72.4 percent were not related to the commission of any other felony.

Where the number of victims and offenders was known, 76.9 percent of incidents involved one victim and one offender (30 incidents), 15.4 percent of the homicides involved one victim and multiple offenders (6 incidents), and 7.7 percent involved multiple victims and one offender (3 incidents). There were no incidents involving multiple victims and multiple offenders.

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