Number of US youngsters killed by weapons hit file excessive in 2021: Study

Child gun deaths within the United States have hit a file excessive, in response to a brand new examine printed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mortality database, the examine printed on Monday within the AAP’s journal Pediatrics discovered that 4,752 youngsters died from gun-related accidents in 2021, the newest yr for which knowledge was obtainable, up from 4,368 in 2020 and three,390 in 2019.

Gun violence has been the primary reason for demise for youngsters within the United States since 2020.

The examine was printed as Tennessee lawmakers opened a particular session on public security after a Nashville faculty capturing earlier this yr that killed three youngsters and three lecturers.

Annie Andrews, a South Carolina pediatrician and gun violence prevention researcher who was not concerned within the examine, mentioned that when she turned a health care provider, “I never imagined I would take care of so many children with bullet holes in them.

“But the very fact of the matter is, in each youngsters’s hospital throughout this nation, there are kids within the pediatric intensive care models affected by firearm accidents.”

The study further showed that Black children accounted for around 67% of firearm homicides while white children made up about 78% of gun-assisted suicides.

Iman Omer, a junior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and an anti-gun violence advocate with Students Demand Action, said the study’s findings were devastating but unsurprising.

“Every yr, I do know that 128 youngsters and teenagers in Tennessee die by weapons,” Omer said as she headed to the state’s capitol Tuesday to join protesters who have been demanding tougher gun laws.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who knew two of the teachers killed in the Nashville shooting, had asked lawmakers in the special session to bolster so called red flag laws aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of people deemed to be a threat. He has faced resistance from his fellow Republicans, who control the statehouse.

In a statement Tuesday, the Tennessee Firearms Association expressed concern that “whereas some Republican legislators have mentioned that no Red Flag legal guidelines will move, far fewer have acknowledged that no legal guidelines that will have any damaging affect on 2nd Amendment protected rights would move.”

Published On:

Aug 23, 2023