{"id":56800,"date":"2025-07-15T13:29:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T17:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=56800"},"modified":"2025-07-15T13:29:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T17:29:33","slug":"polk-group-calls-for-action-after-new-data-reveals-teen-gun-possession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/07\/15\/polk-group-calls-for-action-after-new-data-reveals-teen-gun-possession\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk group calls for action after new data reveals teen gun possession"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a new study, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reports that 6% of Florida teens have guns \u2014 including a significant number of middle schoolers, something that has alarmed local advocacy groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the past three years, Mike Murray has spent most of his time spreading one message throughout Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSecure your firearms. Just simple as that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his experience as co-chair of the League of Women Voters<\/a>\u2019 Gun Violence Prevention Action Team, Murray says he\u2019s learned that youth typically access firearms from within their homes. So when he heard about the AAP study,<\/a> which analyzed trends in handgun possession among adolescents from 2002 to 2022, he was concerned. What worries him most is how they get the guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey should never get them,\u201d Murray said. \u201cThey should never be able to have them, and that\u2019s what concerns me more. And that\u2019s the thing we have to do \u2014 we have to teach parents to keep them locked up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army veteran says having unsecured, easily accessible handguns can lead to even more troubling studies. He says the way to combat this is by first asking why youth feel they need a handgun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey may feel it\u2019s cool. They may feel they need it because of where they are \u2014 just for self-protection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

League of Women Voters volunteer<\/a> Andy Crossfield says some young people may feel like justice isn\u2019t on their side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you have a feeling that there is no justice in the world, then it falls on you to protect yourself,\u201d Crossfield said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of this, both men advise parents to talk with their children, and then take the necessary steps to keep firearms secure. Murray also says action needs to be taken at the state level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got to do an honest assessment of the whole thing and be transparent with it with the communities. Educate the public, and then educate the students, the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says this is needed before another young life is reduced to a number.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new study, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reports that 6% of Florida teens have guns \u2014 including a significant number of middle schoolers, something that has alarmed… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDdcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtOTItOC53ZWJwP2ZpdD04MDMlMkM0ODEmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJQb2xrIGdyb3VwIGNhbGxzIGZvciBhY3Rpb24gYWZ0ZXIgbmV3IGRhdGEgcmV2ZWFscyB0ZWVuIGd1biBwb3NzZXNzaW9uIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.LKp2Dqg3Q7mWnpiQR1zWt1W6hI8nhHe3nNLCkyAwR-0MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":56801,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-92-8.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[11828],"class_list":["post-56800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-group-calls-for-action-after-new-data-reveals-teen-gun-possession"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56802,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56800\/revisions\/56802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}