Teen Gun Violence ‘A Way Of Life’ In Savannah And Syracuse

One is an oasis of Southern charm and history that draws millions of tourists. The other is a faded rust-belt city where winters are spent rooting for a cherished college basketball powerhouse and bracing for frigid lake-effect snow.

On the surface, Savannah, Georgia, and Syracuse, New York, don't have much in common beyond their size; both are smaller cities with populations hovering around 145,000 people.

Yet their streets share a grim reality: Teenagers are being killed or wounded by firearms at rates far higher than in most U.S. cities, according to an analysis by The Associated Press and USA TODAY Network.

The cities' rates of teen shootings per capita are more than double those seen in the vast majority of U.S. cities with populations of 50,000 or more.