home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- THE WEEK, Page 24SOCIETYGun Shirts Are Out
-
-
- Parents and teachers move to get rid of a violent teen symbol
-
-
- For teenagers in the Washington area, they are a hip
- fashion statement: T shirts emblazoned with a 9-mm handgun or
- a Mac 10 semiautomatic pistol on the front and rap lyrics such
- as "Mac Dad'll make ya jump, jump" on the back. But to alarmed
- teachers and parents, the hot-selling shirts are inciting
- echoes of gun violence that has become a part of the area's teen
- culture and claimed 385 lives last year alone. At several
- schools, principals are asking students to turn the shirts
- inside out or change clothes.
-
- The gun-shirt craze has been a jackpot for vendors, who
- collect $13 to $15 a garment. Some sellers have continued
- peddling the shirts, claiming a teenager who wears a gun shirt
- isn't likely to attract attention to himself by also toting a
- gun. Other vendors insist it is only a fad but have halted the
- supply in response to parental concern. "But T shirts don't kill
- people," says manufacturer Ben S. Ali, who has stopped selling
- the shirts. "People kill people."
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-