Teen gun violence ‘a way of life’ in unlikely US cities

SAVANNAH, Georgia — One is known as an oasis of Southern charm and history, drawing millions of tourists with its time-capsule collection of antebellum homes and marble monuments.

The other is a faded rustbelt city where winters are spent rooting for a cherished college basketball powerhouse and bracing for frigid blankets of lake-effect snow.

On the surface, Savannah, Georgia, and Syracuse, New York, don’t have much in common beyond their size; both are smaller cities with populations hovering around 145,000 people.

Yet their streets share a grim reality: Teenagers are being killed or wounded by firearms at rates far higher than in most United States cities, according to an Associated Press and USA TODAY Network analysis of shooting cases compiled by the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

From 2014 through this past June, 57 youths aged 12 to 17 in Savannah and 48 in Syracuse were killed or injured in gun violence. The cities’ rates of teen shootings per capita are more than double those seen in the vast majority of US cities with populations of 50,000 or more.

It’s getting worse. They’re still shooting. And they still don’t care.”

Barbara O’Neal, who started the group Mothers of Murdered Sons in Savannah

“It’s getting worse,” said Barbara O’Neal, who started the group Mothers of Murdered Sons in Savannah. “They’re still shooting. And they still don’t care.”

Her son, Alan O’Neal Jr., survived his teenage years, only to be shot dead during a robbery attempt six years ago at age 20.

Despite the reasons for despair, some residents are not ready to give in to the violence.

Over the slap of boxing gloves at the Faith Hope Community Center in Syracuse, Arthur “Bobby” Harrison said some teens who get mixed up with guns are good kids, but confused. His gym offers a place where neighborhood youths can shoot hoops, lift weights or spar in a ring next to a wall plastered with pictures of local boxers and role models such as Muhammad Ali and former president Barack Obama.

Harrison, who was serving a sentence in Attica state prison during the infamously deadly uprising in 1971, provides a firm hand for the teens who train here. But the gym also is a sanctuary for teens such as Quishawn Richardson.

“It doesn’t remind you of all the violence that’s going on outside,” said Quishawn, a lanky 15-year-old who dreams of playing basketball up the hill at the university. “It shows you that Syracuse has got some places you can go to without getting hurt.”