Despite progress in the fight against gun crime in America, gun crime rates continue to be among the highest in the industrialized world. In 2005, for example, guns were used in more than two-thirds of the 16,700 homicides and in an estimated 420,000 nonfatal violent crimes in our country. Furthermore, 31% of all homicide victims were 13 to 24 years old, and these teenage and young adult victims were four times more likely to be murdered with a gun than with all other weapons combined. In reaction to this trend of violence, a campaign was launched in 2003 with Project Safe Neighborhoods, a nationwide commitment to reduce gun violence in America. The campaign is continually funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
