Turning against guns

By Bob Groves
Staff Writer

UMDNJ forum spotlights crisis, 1996

NEWARK -- The littlest victim of stray bullets spoke the least, but he made a big impression at a discussion of youth-against-youth gun violence Friday at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Nine-year-old Radee Thompson was playing a video game in a store in Newark in May when he was cut down by gunfire from a drive-by shooting intended for someone else. Radee underwent two operations and spent 13 days in the hospital to repair his nearly destroyed liver and collapsed lung.

Even with prompting, Radee shyly said he could not remember much of the incident. But just this small presence was an inspiration to end senseless shootings among young people, said members of the panel of physicians and community leaders, sponsored by the UMDNJ Institute on Violence headed by Senator Bill Bradley, D-N.J.

"You were real brave. You did real well. We're real proud of you," Dr. Edwin Deitch, head of surgery at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, told Radee.

There is a "tremendous epidemic" of youthful gun vioence in the Untied States, said Deitch, who sees 18 percent of his young gun victims die of their wounds.

Bradley used the event to promote the Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun Violence, a nationwide chance on Oct. 10 for children to sign a pledge not to bring guns to schoool, never to use guns to settle a dispute, and to influence their friends not to use guns.

The national day and the volunteer pledge were created by a resolution sponsored by Bradley and passed unanimously by the Senate on August 2. Bradley is also seeking $3 million in federal funds for the UMDNJ Institute on Violence, which pulls together 40 university programs on the issue around the state.

The goal of the national pledge, Bradley said, is "to try to turn around the culture in which young people exist, by having them take action that, with their collective voice, demonstrates to the country that a crisis situation exists, and that we must end the violence."

Bradley cited a 1993 survey which found that 42 percent of students in Grades 6 to 12 said they knew of weapons in their schools. Nearly 75 percent of them were aware of physical attacks on students, and most of them knew where to get a gun, Bradley said.

Civic leaders familiar with inner-city violence said they take youth violence seriously.

Young people probably will have more influence on their peers than adults when it comes to preaching against violence, said Paterson Mayor William J. Pascrell Jr.

"I believe the majority of young people don't want to be inolved in violence or use guns against each other," Pascrell said.

Gunshot wounds are the second-leading cause of spinal cord injuries after motor-vehicle accidents, said Sandy DeLeone, a registered nurse director of the Aquaintance Violence Program at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation.

Shooting victims 15 to 30 years old often know the person who shot them, and some kind of grudge is involved, DeLeone said. Kessler has recruited young victimes for an outreach program for Newark schools, she said.

"It's better to walk away from an argument so you can live another day. Try to handle your anger," said Hashim Garrett, a 21-year-old parapalegic who teaches non-violence to Newark school children. Garrett has been paralyzed since he was 15. He was shot six times as an innocent bystander in a drive-by shooting in Brooklyn.

"A lot of students say, 'So what if I die or I'm shot.' But I know what it's like. Sometimes you just have to listen to your parents. Show respect and you get respect," said Garrett, who sat in a wheelchair.