Mikel Pittard's mom thinks he was killed by a gang

by Megan Matteucci, AJC

The mother of a Decatur High School student killed in a drive-by shooting thinks gangs from another high school targeted her son.

"It’s stupid," mother Peggy Hunter said Wednesday night. "He wasn’t in any gang or nothing, but there were gangs from other cities, from Atlanta and southwest DeKalb, that didn’t like him."

Pittard and four of his friends had just left Club Lone Star on Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain when the shooting occurred, according to a police report. The boys had gotten kicked out of the club for fighting, they told police. Police said the club is an empty building that can be rented for parties.

Some facts posted by Maureen Downey in the AJC:

> Since 1979, gun violence has taken the lives of 104,419 children and teens [about 3500 a year]

> A black male has a one-in-72 chance of being killed by a firearm before age 30; a white male has a one-in-344 chance.

> While black children are more likely to be victims of firearm homicides, whites are more likely to use a gun to commit suicide. Eight times as many white kids committed suicide by gun as blacks. [There are roughly six times as many white kids.]

Downey is making a case for tighter gun control, but in all likelihood the kids doing the shooting are violating existing gun laws. What cultural influences are causing them to use guns rather than words or fists (like we did when we were in high school] to resolve disagreements?