Firearms become the leading cause of death in children
How do you feel about the rise in child gun violence fatalities?
Written by Jamie Epstein, Countable News
What’s the story?
- Firearms became the leading cause of death in children in 2020, surpassing auto accidents, which was the number one cause of death among the cohort for decades.
- Overall gun-related deaths increased by 13.5% from 2019 to 2020, but researchers from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) found that these fatalities rose nearly 30% for those under the age of 19. These firearm-related deaths include incidents of suicide, accidental shootings, and homicides.
- In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 45,222 firearm-related deaths in the United States. Patrick Carter, co-director of the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, said around 10% of those deaths were children.
The numbers explained
- A separate NEJM study found motor vehicle accidents were the leading cause of death among children for over 60 years. While reports have shown an increase in firearm violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers are unsure of the reason behind it.
- Carter points to the progress made in decreasing motor vehicle deaths as one possible explanation. Cars have become safer over time, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has pushed for better child and driver protection. Carter hopes to implement the same safety measures for firearms.
- For children, 65% of firearm deaths are homicides and 35% are suicides. Cases of accidental shootings have increased during the pandemic, which the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety claims may be due to a lack of child care, record gun sales with more first-time gun owners, and more downtime at home.
- Though mass shootings have drastically increased over the past 30 years, the majority of children are killed in smaller, day-to-day incidents in which guns are present and not secure in the household or neighborhood they grew up in.
- While this is the first year that more children and teens were killed overall by guns than car accidents, gun violence has been the leading cause of death among Black teenage boys for more than a decade.
The impact on children
- The increase in gun violence in America has created a new level of anxiety for the younger generations. Teens expressed paranoia, sadness, and hopelessness over the rise in gun violence and the loss of their peers.
- Everytown for Gun Safety says that exposure to gun violence negatively impacts a child’s psychological and mental well-being. This increases a child’s likelihood to abuse drugs and alcohol, suffer from mental illness, be violent and aggressive, and engage in criminal activities. The group says that this disproportionately impacts Black and Latinx children and teens compared to white children, and the concentrated disadvantages these communities face are strong predictors of crime and gun violence.
How can you help reduce gun violence?
- Learn more about the impacts of gun violence here.
- Donate to March For Our Lives, a youth-led organization fighting to end gun violence, Amnesty International to protect human rights and safety, and Everytown for Gun Safety.
- Share resources for suicide prevention, including the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center for children.
- If you have a firearm in the home, safety courses like the National Handgun Safety Education Course and the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program for children will help ensure protection and security at all times.
How do you feel about the rise in child gun violence fatalities? What do you think the U.S. should do to end gun violence?
(Photo Credit: iStock.com / EyeJoy)