Firearm-related deaths among children and teenagers in the U.S. have risen sharply, increasing by 50% since 2019. In 2023, firearms remained the leading cause of death among youth for the third year in a row, followed by motor vehicle accidents, according to mortality data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Stateline reports. The data show 2,581 children aged 17 and under died from firearm-related incidents in 2023, including accidents, homicides and suicides, with a national rate of nearly four gun deaths per 100,000 children. Young people were killed by firearms at a rate nearly three times higher than by drowning. This means that for every child who died from drowning in 2023, nearly three died from gun violence. “Every single number is a life lost — is a kid that won’t go back home,” said Silvia Villarreal of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Children, she added, are an inherently vulnerable population, and this vulnerability is even more pronounced among children of color.
Black children and teens in 2023 were more than eight times as likely to die from firearm homicide than their white peers. Since 2015, firearms have been the leading cause of death for Black youth. Since 2018, firearm suicide rates have been highest among American Indian or Alaska Native and white children and teens. In 2023, American Indian and Alaska Native youth had the highest firearm suicide rate of any racial group. Youth gun deaths don’t just affect family members, close loved ones and friends; they ripple through entire communities, making it difficult for people to heal, Villarreal said. “Communities that have suffered really high-impact losses are never the same, and I don’t know if it’s possible to be ever the same as it was before,” she said. One of the major policies championed by gun control and safety groups to address youth gun violence is safe storage laws, which establish guidelines for how firearms should be stored in homes, vehicles and other properties. Some states have created tax credits for purchasing gun safes. Twenty-six states have child access prevention and secure storage laws, says the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.
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