We decided to check in with Rookie Graduates in different communities to ask them how they feel about guns. They rated how easy it is to get a gun in their neighborhood on a scale of 1 to 10 [1 being very easy, 10 being very hard]. 

*Mr. Gonzalez will be a guest on the live-chat on gun control and school safety hosted by Radio Rookies and Youth Radio.The live chat is on January 31, 2012 from 1-2pm EST. 

I am a life-long resident of Bushwick, Brooklyn - a beautiful community besieged by gun violence. Over the years, attempts have been made to loosen the grip violence has on our community, but each initiative has been only a band-aid. Too often, solutions to gun violence in our community are discussed in closed meetings, - and people who look like me, with the baggy jeans, who walk down the street each day wondering if our time has come - aren’t invited.

On Sunday, January 20th, President Obama was officially sworn in to his second term as president, but yesterday he shared his moment with the public at the inauguration ceremony. There were many great moments of the entire day, but Obama’s speech is what most people were waiting for (that and Beyonce’s singing of course)!

By giving New York City teenagers the tools to tell stories specific to their realities for over a decade, it is no surprise that Radio Rookies’ stories reflect how some teen issues have evolved over the years. This is especially true when it comes to the thin line between gossiping and bullying. Going through the Rookies archive, one can hear how the emergence of the internet and social media has amplified this issue.

These days, many teenagers live half their lives on social media sites, and they're writing the rules as they go. One online trend 16-year-old Radio Rookie Temitayo Fagbenle finds disturbing is something she calls "slut-shaming," or using photos and videos to turn a girl's private life inside out.

Radio Rookies hosted an in-class live chat to coincide with a new story about sexual cyberbullying. Rookie Reporter Temitayo Fagbenle hosted a facilitated online conversation for high school students to discuss the issues her story brings to light.

18 months ago Radio Rookie Tangeneka Taylor's family went to the US Embassy in Guyana to pick up immigration paperwork allowing them to come to New York. But when they got there the clerk told them that her mom's name wasn't on the papers. Hear how Tangeneka has has had to adjust to her new life in Brooklyn, without her mom.

18-year-old Radio Rookie Reporter, Danielle came from the Congo when she was 13 years old, leaving her mother and the life that she knew behind in hopes of a better future. For three of the four years she has been here, she's lived in a shelter with her stepmom and sisters. Back home in the Congo, Danielle's mom doesn't know the truth about where she lives because Danielle doesn't tell her. "Living like this has turned me into a liar," Danielle says.

Nearly 100,000 Americans suffer from a blood disorder called Sickle Cell Anemia, a painful disease that shortens life-expectancy. Sickle cells aren’t round – they’re shaped like a crescent moon and Radio Rookie Bree Person hates looking at them. Sometimes she hates talking about them, too – but she put together this report nevertheless.

New York State has the worst four-year high school graduation rate in the country, according to a recent study by the Schott Foundation for Public Education. But when you zero in on New York City, the rates are even worse, especially for black males, with only 28 percent graduating from public high school in four years in 2010. Radio Rookie Mike Brown, 18, is a young black man growing up in Harlem and being raised by a single mom. According to these statistics, someone like Mike wouldn’t have a good chance of graduating from high school. Mike's story explores the question at the forefront of most educators' minds: How does a teen who's on the path to failure turn his life around?