Mayor Menino seems pretty pleased with the way things are going on the gun-violence front, and certainly we should be grateful for the relatively low body count in 2007, of 66 homicides after two years in the mid-70s.
But let's not kid ourselves. Certainly not when, barely two weeks into the year, four young men, ages 16, 18, 20, and 23, have already been shot dead in Boston. [
Update: a fifth was shot to death this afternoon, described at this point only as between 17 and 23.]
Here are the figures I have, year-by-year, for the number of people younger than 25 killed by gunshots in Boston:
2007: 35
2006: 37
2005: 28
2004: 29
2003: 13
2002: 21
2001: 21
2000: 15
And here's the annual total number of people shot in Boston, fatal or non-fatal:
2007: 324
2006: 377
2005: 341
2004: 268
2003: 177
2002: 179
2001: 222
2000: 162
Some parts of 2007 were definitely good news; some stretches were bad news. It's far too soon to say that the city has started its climb out of the problem.