'Arms race': Summit County kids say they carry guns for protection from other kids. (Akron, OH)

An arms race among teens, this is so heartbreaking.

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Summit County Juvenile Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio has watched the devastating evolution of kids with guns unfold since she took over the court in 2003.

During those early years, she said a couple of kids would get into trouble every year for BB guns, not real guns.

Then, she noticed police picking up children who had flashed guns that looked real but weren’t.

That escalated into kids – mostly boys – carrying real guns that didn’t work, old pistols they found in a relative’s shoe box or picked up on the street.

But about five years ago, kids, lots of kids, traded up to guns that did work.

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She had an aha moment about this a few years ago during a criminal hearing for a 17-year-old in trouble for having a loaded gun under the seat of a car.

(snip)

There was a long pause, and then he looked at me and asked, ‘Have you ever been shot at?’” Teodosio recalled. “Then he asked, ‘Have you ever laid in bed at night, with your mom and sister in the house, hearing gunfire outside, wanting to protect them?’”

(snip)

The judge, even after 20 years on the bench, was taken aback.

After the hearing, as guards were taking the teen back to detention, Teodosio went after the boy and asked him, since he was part of a gun problem, how to solve it.

He told the judge that gun laws need to change so people his age could never have access to such weapons, she said.

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https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2023/10/19/kids-say-they-carry-guns-for-protection-akron-summit-county-ohio-police-shooting-teens/71172451007/