National Summit to Find Ways to End Gun Trafficking
LIN: A half a dozen seventh graders are custody in North Pole, Alaska. Police said they plotted to kill classmates and teachers. The students allegedly planned to cut power and phone service to their school in order to carry out the attack and escape. Police chief Paul Lindhag says that the kids wanted revenge for being picked on. Well it's no secret that big-city mayors want illegal guns off the streets. Tuesday, they are holding a national summit to find ways to end gun trafficking. And the stakes are high. Our Christopher King talks to family members who lost a little girl to a stray bullet.</s>GLORIA CRUZ, NAIESHA PEARSON'S AUNT: I can show you five different points in this neighborhood where people have been shot and killed.</s>CHRISTOPHER KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Gloria Cruz, the agonizing memories of gun violence are vivid. Her niece, Naiesha Pearson, was shot dead last Labor Day by a bullet intended for someone else. Rene Bonilla was arrested and charged with her murder. He was 19-years-old at the time. Naiesha was only 10. Cruz says guns, many of them illegal, wind up on the streets of her Bronz neighborhood and in the hands of young people. The flow of guns is steady and young people can them, Cruz says, with alarming ease.</s>CRUZ: It costs $10,000 to bury a child. It costs $50 and one minute to kill a child from the weapons. And we have to stop the weapons. And we have to stop the cause.</s>KING (on camera): Little Naiesha was riding her brand-new bike here in the Saw Mill playground, doing what 10-year-olds do just before she was fatally shot. Gloria Cruz says this type of needless gun violence happens all too often in her neighborhood. (voice-over): According to the Bronx district attorney, the gun used to kill Naiesha was never found, thus never traced, leaving her mother with a wound that won't heal.</s>TAISHA PEARSON, NAIESHA'S MOTHER: Her birthday just passed. Instead of being a joyous occasion, it was an occasion that the family went to the cemetery to visit my daughter, and that hurts.</s>KING: Cruz has organized a march through these mob-haven streets, set for the day before Mother's Day. Cruz wants to get illegal guns out of her community. According to the ATF, the vast majority of all guns used in crime in New York City come from out of state, often shipped up Interstate 95. The agency believes some 17 percent originate in Virginia, 12 percent from North Carolina, another 12 percent from Pennsylvania. The figures have prompted New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, to call for a summit on illegal guns. On Tuesday more than a dozen mayors from around the country will meet in New York to talk about how to curb illegal gun trafficking.</s>JOHN FEINBLATT, NYC CRIMINAL JUSTICE COORINDATOR: In New York City, 82 percent of our crime guns come from other states. And the 15 other cities that are participating in the gun summit, about 50 percent or more of their crime guns come from other states. If that's not a national issue, I don't know what is.</s>KING: The National Rifle Association called the summit, quote, "a publicity stunt." The NRA says the mayor should instead more aggressive prosecute gun crimes. But outside a political debate...</s>CRUZ: ... This is where she died. And this is where we feel is the last place that she took her last breath. And it's important for us to let everyone know that she did not die in vain.</s>KING: Cruz wants to end the killing so that no mother has to feel the anguish of losing a child to gun violence again. Christopher King, CNN, New York.</s>LIN: Taking a look at stories across America this Sunday. All you city folks, it looks like pigeons aren't going to be carriers of bird flu. Researchers found them to be resistant to the virus, even the deadly H5N1 strain. This is not a honey of a story. A Miami-area home owner is still buzzing over what he found in the back of his house, two million bees who live in seven-foot hive. To be safe, the homeowner called a professional pest removal service. Good luck there. And MySpace takes up too much space at Del Mar College in Texas. The school is blocking students from accessing the Internet social site, saying so many students were logging on, it slowed down campus computers. All right, I don't know, Jacqui, are you going to let your kids go on MySpace?</s>LIN: Well the power of a mentor can change lives.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you something, where do you think big words come from?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Little words.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And how many little words do you know?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ten.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>LIN: That a scene from the movie "Akeelah and the Bee," which is coming out this week. But we're going to delve a little bit deeper. Find out how mentors are changing lives at a New York City school and how you can take those lessons home. She and her husband Larry David helped make hybrids cool in Hollywood. Find out how Laurie David wants to change the rest of America.</s>DAMON: This is a normal occurrence for this location in downtown Ramadi. Attacks like this happen on a daily basis, sometimes four or five times a day, lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to hours long.</s>LIN: That's our Arwa Damon. We're going to take you onto the frontlines of Iraq to hear what the people are saying. That's next.