Survey: 1 in 10 Monroe County teens admits to carrying weapon
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – No one has ever tried to count how many loaded, illegal guns are in our community everyday.
But Monroe County has asked teenagers how often they’ve carried a weapon over the course of a month.
Chief investigative reporter Berkeley Brean dug into the results that make up the county’s youth risk behavior survey, which is conducted every two years.
In the 2023-24 report, 1 in 10 reported carrying a weapon in the month before they took the survey. The majority were boys. Twenty percent of Black and Latino teens say they have seen someone get beaten, stabbed, or shot in their neighborhood.
Sirr Holmes survived a shooting when he was 15. He’s 17 now and the injuries have him in a wheelchair. Brean talked about the number of teens who carry a weapon.
Sirr, survived being shot at 15: “Weapons, to me, are supposed to be used for defense. Not just to be played with. Not just to go shoot anybody you want.”
Brean, chief investigative reporter: “Do you think a lot of teenagers or a lot of young people in the city carry weapons?”
Sirr: “Oh yeah.”
Brean: “And do they do that for the room protection?”
Sirr: “Oh yeah.”
Niya Shabazz was 15 when her best friend was murdered. She works with children every day through Community Justice Initiative. Brean asked her what she thinks of the number of teens self-reporting they carried a weapon.
“That number doesn’t surprise me. A lot of children are living at a fear and there is a saying that ‘I would rather be judged by 12 then carried by six,'” she said. “And that’s basically saying they would rather protect themselves or their family even if they have to deal with the consequences of the law.”
Rochester Police recovered more than 6,000 illegal guns in the last 10 years.