Where is the outrage?

In the span of just a few days last week, an 18-year-old was shot and killed in a Salisbury apartment and a 22-year-old died after being shot in East Spencer and trying to drive himself to the hospital. Also in his car were three small children, including a 4-year-old who also had been shot. The child’s wounds were said not to be life-threatening, but he was taken to a Charlotte hospital.

Police have released no details about possible motives in the two homicides, though neither is believed to be random.

Where does it end?

When advocates for children study wellbeing, they look at statistics for things like poverty, birth weight, life expectancy and education. Sadly, gun violence also needs to be measured somehow if advocates are to get a full picture.

Some sobering statistics:

• More than one in five U.S. teenagers (ages 14 to 17) report having witnessed a shooting, according to a U.S. Department of Justice study.

• American children die by guns 11 times as often as children in other high-income countries, according to an article published in the Journal of Trauma, Injury, Infection, and Critical Care.

• Firearm homicide is the second-leading cause of death (after motor vehicle crashes) for young people ages 1-19 in the U.S., according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Whatever the motive behind these terrible crimes, dangerous conditions clearly exist. Steven Omari Rosario had just returned to the area to enroll again at his former school, North Rowan High. But the 18-year-old was killed May 18 at a Fulton Street apartment where he was staying with a relative.

Less has been revealed about the case of Kejuan Dishad Lamont Sweat, the 22-year-old who died after being shot outside his Long Street apartment in East Spencer. But when a barrage of bullets rains down on a man, and his 4-year-old child gets caught in the gunfire, something is terribly, terribly wrong.

Just a year ago, people were holding community meetings to talk about street violence and to urge police to take the threat seriously. One of the triggers then was the discovery of stray bullets that pierced the wall of two girls’ bedroom. Police stepped up patrols and community policing, but now a teen and a young father have been killed and a 4-year-old shot. Clearly, the menacing cloud of gun violence still hangs over parts of the city.  If we just shrug our shoulders and look the other way, what will keep that violence from spreading?