FOR TEENAGERS IN THE WASHINGTON AREA, THEY are a hip fashion statement: T shirts emblazoned with a 9-mm handgun or a Mac 10 semiautomatic pistol on the front and rap lyrics such as "Mac Dad'll make ya jump, jump" on the back. But to alarmed teachers and parents, the hot-selling shirts are inciting echoes of gun violence that has become a part of the area's teen culture and claimed 385 lives last year alone. At several schools, principals are asking students to turn the shirts inside out or change clothes.
The gun-shirt craze has been a jackpot for vendors, who collect...
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