1. Most anybody in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, can tell the story of how  10-year- old Monique Schweiger's childhood ended. The hard part is explaining why. It was just before 7 p.m a month ago in the Central Park of the town. That's where her mother Christine was ordered to her knees by two teenagers, 15 and 16 years old, who demanded her money. When Christine, 34 , an accountant and mother of three , said she didn't  have any, the 16- year-old apparently  took offence. As Monique watched, the youth allegedly let loose at pointblank range with a 12-gauge sawed of shotgun, blasting away most of Christine's head. Police say he later explained that "I'm the big man . I got the gun. Why does she have this attitude ?"

2. Gun and attitudes: like so many American cities, Milwaukee is aching from the frequent and often fatal combination of the two. "It used to be your money or your life.", says Sheriff Richard Artison. "now they'll shoot you anyway."  Since 1980 the city's homicide rate has doubled and stands at more  than 150 so far this year, spurred by a deadly convergence of gangs, drugs and even more sophisticated weaponry . Countrywide, juvenile arrests for homicides climbed from 6 in 1980 to 82 last year. Admissions to children's Hospital for gunshot wounds rose from 50 in 1989 to 160 so far this year.

3. The city has tried one security measure after another. A new 106 million dollars, 1,200-prisoner-capacity county jail, opened last year, is already overflowing. Metal detectors were installed in the Sheriff's department in October, and the Milwaukee public school system with 100,000 students started random weapons searches this fall at the middle and high schools .  "I have in front of me a list of all my kids who have died between 1992 and 1995," says superintendent Howard fuller. " on that list 15 are kids under the age of 17."