Insight on gun violence impacting teens under 18 [VIDEO]

Last night's murder of a 15-year-old boy marks the 11th murder of someone 18 years old and younger this year.

LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) - On Wednesday night, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed in Lafayette, and today, a 17-year-old was arrested for first-degree murder in his death.

The 15-year-old's death marks the 11th murder of someone 18 years old and younger this year.

KLFY News 10s Rodricka Taylor looked at the data and numbers behind teenagers killed by gun violence. 

"When you have guns getting into the hands of kids who are in alien impulses and don't really under the meaning behind what finality is, it's not a good thing,” said Lafayette resident Rachel Lock. 

According to Key Statistics, 22 children and teens between the ages of 1 and 17 are shot in the United States every day. Based on research by News 10, there have been 11 murders of teens aged 18 and under in 2022 in the nine parishes in Acadiana. Sergent Robin Green with the Lafayette Police Department said that out of the 15 homicides they had; three were under the age of 18 years old in Lafayette. 

Lock told News 10, "I don't know what the answer is. I think that we should be locking up our guns better. We should definitely have more rules in place for who's requiring the guns to just try to keep them out of the hands of people that shouldn't have them, including children." 

As a resident who lives near Toulouse Drive, where a shooting killed a 15-year-old boy recently, Lock said that there should be more awareness of gun safety and locking up firearms.

“You can take a life just like that, and you have a very powerful tool in your hand, and it should be used by adults and in certain circumstances only,” she said. "It's really scary, and I hear what sounds like shots all the time, but they can be fireworks. They can be all these other things but to know that it was actually so close to home is very scary." 

Although the juvenile was arrested and booked in the Lafayette Juvenile Detention Center, Sgt. Green said a mother is now without her son. 

"We have a mother that's having to bury a son,” said Sgt. Green.