RED CROSS :FROM COLUMBINE KILLINGS

The names of Dylan Klebo and Eric Harris, the shooters in the incident, were forever etched in history for being the first juveniles to have killed that many students inside a school.

Two months later, T.J. Solomon opened fire with a 22-caliber weapon at Heritage High School in Conyers, Georgia with the intent of killing his classmates. He was later charged with 21 counts of assault for shooting 6 of his fellow students.

Emulating the Columbine Massacre, on April 4, 2005, Jeff Weise, 16, killed nine classmates at his high school in Minnesota.

Again, America watched in awe and asked, "How is this happening?"

On the night of November 2, 2005, Jermaine Williams, 20, of Decatur was shot and killed outside of the Days Inn on Snapfinger Drive and I-20 in Decatur. A 15-year old male was arrested for questioning in the shooting.

Nobody asked "why?" And attempts to garner information regarding the shooting have met with no response from the DeKalb County Police Department investigating the crime.

As heinous as school shootings are, it is more palatable to accept one deranged youngster killing out of provocation than it is to accept the fact that kids kill kids in isolated incidents all over America all the time.

During 1996, juveniles were murdered at the rate of 7 per day for a total of 2,600 for the year.

Nationally, murder accounts for 5% of the violent crimes committed by juveniles.

According to the National School Safety and Security Service, during the 2003-2004 school year, 49 youngsters under the age of 18 were killed in or around the nation's schools.

There were another 210 violent incidents over the same period that did not result in death.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) collects information from all the police jurisdictions in the state and publishes the findings annually.

According to the GBI, there were 363 juvenile murders over the five-year period 2000-2004.

A record 111 Georgia juveniles were murders in 2000 alone. The number declined to 75 in 2003.

FBI statistics show that 25,000 juveniles were murdered over the 10-year period 1985 through 1995. The same report indicates 83% of the juveniles murdered in 1995 were killed with firearms.

Even harder to digest is the glaring FBI statistic that 56% of all juvenile murders involve acquaintances and 34% involve strangers.

In March of last year, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject the death penalty for juveniles under the age of 18. At the time of the ruling, 70 juveniles were awaiting execution across the country.

The new ruling by the Supreme Court will have the greatest impact in Texas. Over the past 20 years, 13 of the 22 juveniles put to death have been executed in Texas.