more and more children and adolescents victims of firearms

The figure is chilling: 4,752 children died in 2021 in the United States following a firearm injury. This figure results from data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compiled in a study which has just been published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

That’s an increase of nearly 42% from 2018, and makes 2021 the second year in a row that guns are the leading cause of death among children and teens under 19 in the United States ; in the face of road accidents, drug overdoses and cancer. For three years now, guns have killed more young people than car accidents, which have long been the leading cause of death among those under 20.

Mostly African American boys

In detail, almost two thirds of these 4,752 firearm deaths were homicides, and almost 30% suicides. Most of the victims were between 15 and 19 years old. More than eight out of ten were boys. And half of them were black. The majority of gun homicides involve black children who die from gun-related injuries, while white children account for the majority of suicides.

According to the report, Black children have experienced the greatest increase in death rates, having already suffered the highest gun death rates for a long time. According to the authors, the data shows that racial and socioeconomic disparities have widened, and that across the United States, higher levels of poverty continue to correlate with gun death rates. at the highest heat.