Nation IN BRIEF : NATIONWIDE : Children’s Advocates Report Gun Crisis

Nearly 50,000 children and teen-agers were killed by guns from 1979 through 1991, a total roughly equal to the number of battle casualties in the Vietnam War, the Children’s Defense Fund said. The children’s advocacy group used the release of its annual yearbook on the state of America’s children to urge stronger regulation of the sale, manufacture and possession of non-sporting firearms. The report said juveniles now account for both a high and rapidly growing share of homicide offenders as well as victims. The number of arrests for murder and non-negligent manslaughter for adults rose 11% from 1982 to 1991, while the number of juveniles arrested for those crimes rose 93%, the group said.