NEWS RELEASE

 

March 27, 2001                                                         For Immediate Release

 

INOCULATING ADOLESCENTS AGAINST THE CRIMINAL USE OF FIREARMS

“Thirteen-year-old Idaho program for wayward boys has 85 percent success rate.”

Ottawa – Yesterday, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville, broke new ground in the Parliamentary debate to replace the Young Offenders Act.  “Statistics Canada reported that in 1998, 106,984 youths aged 12 to 17 were charged with a Criminal Code offence.  The rate of youths charged with violent crimes is 77 percent higher than it was a decade ago.”  In his speech, Breitkreuz augmented these alarming statistics with a list of headlines over that last few months which reported on a number of violent incidents in schools across the country.  “What happened in the last thirty years to bring about such a dramatic change in how our young people act?” asked Breitkreuz.  “It’s going to take more than passing more laws to bring about the changes the public is demanding to the youth justice file.”

Breitkreuz called on the government to work with communities and churches to develop programs to start to address the underlying factors that are causing our young people to turn to violent crime.  Referring to a number of published documents, Breitkreuz offered a direction that the government programs could take to guarantee success.

A column by Charles Moore published in the Calgary Herald reported, “A study conducted from 1993 to 1995 by the United States Department of Justice’s office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention tracked 4,000 male and female subjects aged six to fifteen.  Among the studies findings:

Commenting on the study in a letter to the National Post, Dr. Gary Mauser of Simon Fraser University added, “Socialization into guns for sporting and hunting purposes appears to have ‘inoculated’ the adolescents against the criminal use of firearms.”

 Time Magazine reported that “teachers and counselors affirm that kids taught to use guns responsibly generally demonstrate more maturity, better manners, and saner attitudes that their non-gun-using peers.  Teacher Cesario Guerrero, who supervises hunting trips for programs for kids from tough, inner-city neighborhoods in Houston, Texas, told Time that these kids often ‘become part of a different crowd,’ as a result.  ‘It gives them pride.’” 

“Hunting trips for troubled kids gives them pride.  Who would have thought?” asked Breitkreuz.  “Well, anyone that hunts would understand why.  So does Randall Eaton, author of The Sacred Hunt: Right of Passage.”  In fact, in an interview with Mr. Eaton last month, the Toronto Star reported an Idaho program for wayward boys that has been running for 13 years and has a remarkable 85% success rate.  Breitkreuz concluded, “This is a program worth looking at.  This is a program that every Wildlife Federation in every province would likely be willing to sponsor and manage.  This is a true young offenders program - one that sets kids back on the right course - one that brings about real change – societal change.  This is a true crime prevention program.”

-30-