Youths' gun use stirring alarm

Half of the 632 people arrested or sought in Boston on illegal gun possession and gun assault charges through Oct. 31 this year are 21 or younger, Police Department statistics show.

Seventy-five were 17 and under, compared with 55 during the same period last year, according to figures obtained yesterday by the Globe.

Police Superintendent Paul Joyce said yesterday that the surge of gun violence in Boston is especially worrisome because of the large number of young people, some as young as 12, who are arming themselves.

''Everyone is concerned about it," he said.

''One of our concerns is a lot of these kids don't think about the consequences," Joyce said in an interview. ''They're living for the moment. Sometimes the issues for why a shooting takes place can be a look or a rumor or an issue related to disrespect in their eyes."

Joyce said many teenagers in Boston who are using guns are involved in gangs, but he said not all shootings stem from gang disputes.

He said that children as young as 13 are joining gangs.

''We're seeing kids at that age being tempted to be pulled into this activity and that's awfully young," Joyce said.

Overall, the number of gun arrests and arrest warrants is up 37 percent in Boston this year over last, the number of seized guns up 12 percent, and the number of shootings up 28 percent. Shootings have risen 77 percent compared with three years ago.

Crime emerged as a key issue in yesterday's mayoral election, a fact not lost on police leaders who joined hands with Mayor Thomas M. Menino last week to officially announce a new partnership with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to investigate gun crimes.

Joyce said the federal help is needed as police grapple with two troubling trends, both of which threaten to reverse gains made during the so-called Boston Miracle years of the mid- to late-1990s, when more police in neighborhoods, cooperation with clergy and community leaders, and federal prosecutions of gun crimes helped to slash violent crime rates. He said police are not only battling a surge in gun possession among young people, but also a rising population of offenders who are leaving prison and returning to old habits.

A jump in the number of arrests and arrest warrants in the 25-34 age group -- to 145 this year from 117 last year -- is in large part the result of inmates hitting the streets, Joyce said.

Rev. Eugene Rivers, a minister who cofounded the Ten Point Coalition, a key player in developing the city's nationally recognized community policing model, said he believes that Boston is the victim of its own success.

''The successful crushing of open-air drug dealing over the last six years created new demand for income on the part of young people in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan," Rivers said. ''Gun sales and gun-running became a new economic opportunity."

But Rivers said the city is not doing enough to stem the alarming rise in ever-younger teenagers who are picking up guns.

''The city has been flooded with guns for the last few years," Rivers said. ''There has not been an effective strategy developed with the community to consistently address what was happening on the street. It requires more than simply prayer meetings with the clergy to effectively target the young men engaged in this game."

Rivers said the problem feeds on itself because many teens are obtaining guns for protection as they hear of more shootings targeting their peers.

Jorge Martinez, executive director of Project RIGHT, a Grove Hall community group, agreed. He said he is hearing more reports of guns being found in or near schools, including a recent cache near Madison Park High School.

''The kids are coming to us and social service agencies and saying they feel unsafe and that's why they're carrying guns," Martinez said.

The good news, community leaders and city officials say, is that solutions are available.

Larry Mayes, Menino's chief of human services and a former director of a Dorchester social service agency, said he hopes an $11 million youth violence prevention bill that recently passed the state Senate also gets passed in the House before the legislative session ends next week.

Mayes said more money and more law enforcement muscle are needed to replicate past success. ''Part of it was the fact that there were targeted prosecutions of people involved with guns and a lot of them went away for a long time," he said.

Joyce said federal prosecutions of the type used to put many gang members behind bars in the 1990s are again being used, though he said they do not apply to juveniles. ''We'll prosecute the case where we'll get the biggest bang for our buck," he said.

Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com