treet gangs were present in their schools compared to 16.4 percent in 1989 (Chandler, Chapman, Rand & Taylor 9). Organized youth gangs are not limited to large, inner-city areas as is commonly believed, and membership crosses all racial and ethnic boundaries. According to a survey conducted by the National Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education, 13.8 percent of American high school students joined a gang during the 1993-1994 school year (Manning). With these younger gang members attending school, schools themselves have become prime recruiting grounds. The increasing numbers of gang members raise the possibility of strife among them and therefore intensify the school crimes.
             Increasingly, guns have become a part of the "culture" of young persons in the United States in ways that had not surfaced until recent years. Because of sloppy gun laws and little enforcement, there has been widespread illegal
             trafficking of firearms to young persons and gangs. Widespread gun possession by youth gangs became a reality in major U.S. cities. According to a 1994 survey conducted by the National Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education, almost
             one in thirteen (7.4%) of all high school students carried a gun to school in 1993-1994, and 35 percent (35%) threatened to harm another student or a teacher (Manning). In addition, young persons and children often easily obtain unsecured firearms in their own homes and homes of friends and neighbors. According to a 1997 U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency report, 10 percent of American high school students had carried a gun to school in the past month (King). On any given school day in America, thousands of students will have carried a gun with themselves to school. Today, schools and schoolyards have become the scene of multiple homicides by teenage schoolchildren who easily obtained the firearms used against their peers and teachers.
             To deal with schoo...