It has happened! The love of firearms in the United States has evolved to the point where gun-related mortality among children and adolescents have surpassed even automobile accidents in the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 45,222 firearm-related deaths in the United States in 2020, which means that around 109 people die every day as a consequence of a firearm-related injury. A firearm was used in six out of 10 deaths, and more than three out of ten featured a gunshot homicide.
Previous studies have showed an upward trend in firearm-related mortality, but the most recent data reveals a dramatic 13.5 percent increase in such deaths in just one year, from 2019 to 2020. The surge in gun-related deaths among Americans aged one to 19 was part of a nationwide 33.4 percent increase in firearm homicides, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. According to the study, the rate of suicides committed with weapons increased by 1.1 percent.
‘A previous analysis, which analyzed data through 2016, found that firearm-related injuries were second only to motor vehicle crashes (both traffic-related and nontraffic-related) as the top cause of death among children and adolescents, defined as those 1 to 19 years of age,’ it says. However, since 2016, the disparity has narrowed, and in 2020, firearm-related injuries will be the leading cause of mortality in that age group.
Almost 193,000 children and teenagers have been killed by weapons on American soil since 1963, according to the Children’s Defense Fund. This is more than four times the number of Americans killed in battle in the Vietnam, Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars combined. This means that every year, over 3000 children die as a result of gun violence in the United States.
Between 2019 and 2020, the rate of all types of firearm-related deaths (suicide, homicide, unintentional, and undetermined) among children and adolescents increased by 29.5 percent, more than twice the overall population. Experts attribute this growth to an increase in the number of guns possessed by citizens. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, Americans have 393 million guns in 2017, which is more than one gun per person. The military and law enforcement agencies in the United States, on the other hand, had only 5.5 million.
According to the NGO, approximately one in every five firearms is sold without a background check due to a loophole in federal law that exempts sales at gun shows, online, or between private individuals. According to a separate study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in February, 7.5 million Americans, or roughly 3% of the population, became first-time gun owners between January and April 2021. As a result, 11 million people are now exposed to domestic weapons, including five million children.
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