PENSACOLA, FL - In a nation where the debate over guns is always raging, one thing probably all Americans can agree on is that they should be kept out of the hands of children.

In certain areas of Pensacola, both police and residents will tell you there are more kids with guns than ever before.

Greg Neumann has been looking into the problem and joins us now with a Channel Three News special report.

Police will tell you this problem has been building in Pensacola for awhile, but it really came to a head this summer, when youth nights at a club in the Belmont-Devilliers neighborhood spurred a number of shootings.

Since then, the cops have been cracking down more than ever before trying to get those guns out of the hands of teens and off the streets.

Angela James says there's always been some youth violence in the Attucks Court Housing Project where she lives.

They were fighting, fist-fighting, but that's over with, once you kill someone, you cannot bring them back.

Angela says in the last few years those teens have dropped their fists to pick up guns.

I was just walking through here about two weekends ago, I actually seen them walking through here with guns.

In fact, Angela says a shooting involving teens broke out in a unit just across from her apartment just a few weeks ago.

They arrested one young man that had shot someone in the back. I mean, we fear for our kids, we don't know what to expect from day to day.

When we're talking about these young kids with firearms, they're not really well-versed in how they operate.

Sergeant Steve Bauer heads up PPD's Special "Cops" Unit, which stands for Community Oriented Policing.

Chief John Mathis recently instructed those officers to aggressively go after problem areas.
Two of those hot spots have been the Belmont-Devilliers and Attucks Court neighborhoods.

It wouldn't be a problem once a week for our unit alone to seize a handgun off somebody, and usually somebody younger.

And seize they have. These is just a sampling of some of the guns they've taken off some very young teens.

This was a 15 year old, had it in his pocket, around the A and Jackson area. And this one, another 16 year-old had it in his possession.

These three weapons were actually in the possession of a 17 year old.

This one's a fairly sophisticated weapon for a 13 year-old to be handling or carrying around with them. And he was in the presence of a 14 year-old, 16 year-old and 17 year-old.

Bauer tells me after a while, they get to know who the troublemakers are and concentrate their efforts on them.

Some of our troublemakers, we would write them tickets for walking in the street, when there's a sidewalk available, no lights on bicycles. We just make it miserable for them to do their job, which was selling drugs or causing problems.

But some of those so-called troublemakers Bauer's unit has targeted believe they're being profiled.

There's a lot of kids with guns, but you know what I'm saying, its not just down here on A Street and Jackson.

It's really called harassment. They harassing everyday, they stop everybody they think sell drugs. Anybody walking down the street they gonna stop em.

Whether it's harassment or simply effective policing, Angela James says it can only do so much to make her feel safe.

The police sit out here from time to time, but its still, they watch the police, wait for them to leave and then everybody gathers up.

You shouldn't have to live amongst these thugs selling drugs, and carrying firearms around just to prove something.

And Sergeant Bauer believes his unit's efforts are stemming the growth of that activity and slowly reducing the number of guns in the hands of kids.

Inevitably, we're gonna find these things and the word does get out, you know, don't go into the city, don't go there during this time, because the police are there all the time.

From January through mid-October of this year, Pensacola Police have found or seized a total of 118 firearms: Up 15 percent from the same period in 2008.

Sergeant Bauer says his unit has seen a slowdown in the number of guns on the street since the start of school year.

But he says it's far too early to say the problem is solved.Rising Number of Local Kids With Guns