Firearm-related deaths in US children and teenagers have been rising sharply in recent years, up 50% since 2019.
In 2023, firearms remained the leading cause of death among young Americans for the third consecutive year, followed by car accidents.
Data shows that 2,581 children under the age of 17 died in a firearms-related incident in 2023 in 2023, including accidents, murders and suicides, with about four guns per 100,000 children.
Young Americans were killed by firearms at almost three times faster than driving. This means that for all the children who died from their own death in 2023, nearly three died from gun violence.
“All numbers are lost life. A child who never goes home,” said Sylvia Villarreal, research superintendent at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Cancer Violence Solutions.
Children are inherently vulnerable populations, and this vulnerability is even more pronounced among children of color.
Black children and teens in 2023 were more than eight times more likely to die from firearm murder than their white peers. Firearms have been the leading cause of death among young black people since 2015, according to CDC data.
Since 2018, firearm suicide rates have been the highest among American Indian or Alaska natives and among white children and teens. In 2023, American Indians and young people from Alaska had the highest rate of firearm suicide among all racial groups.
The death of a young man’s gun is not just an impact on his family or his loved ones and friends. They are rippling across the community and making it difficult for people to heal, Villarreal told Stateline.
“The communities that have suffered a truly shocking loss are never the same. I don’t know if it’s possible to be the same as before,” says Villarreal.
One of the major policies defended by gun control and safety groups is the safe storage law to address gun violence in young people, establishing guidelines for how firearms are stored in homes, vehicles and other properties. In recent years, some states have proposed and adopted measures to create tax credits to purchase gun safety.
26 states have child access prevention and secure storage law About the book, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, gun control research and advocacy groups.
a Report A release by Rand, a non-profit, nonpartisan research organisation in July, discovered that laws designed to restrict children’s access to stored firearms could help reduce firearm suicides, unintended shootings and firearm murders among young people.
This year, lawmakers from states across the country, including Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin, are considering gun storage policies.
You can reach the Stateline Reporter Amanda Hernandez [email protected].
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