If we were really serious about stopping gun crime, then we
should go after the root cause of gun crime. So what is that
root cause? The answer might surprise you. Here is Dr. Robert
Rector of the Heritage Foundation to explain: Census data and
the Fragile Families survey show that marriage can be extremely
effective in reducing child poverty. But the positive effects of
married fathers are not limited to income alone. Children raised
by married parents have substantially better life outcomes
compared to similar children raised in single-parent homes. When
compared to children in intact married homes, children raised by
single parents are more likely to have emotional and behavioral
problems; be physically abused; smoke, drink, and use drugs; be
aggressive; engage in violent, delinquent, and criminal
behavior; have poor school performance; be expelled from school;
and drop out of high school. Many of these negative outcomes are
associated with the higher poverty rates of single mothers. In
many cases, however