Firearm-related deaths are the No.1 killer of kids.
The tragic killing of 19 children at an elementary school in Uvalde, TX, is bringing renewed focus to a troubling new trend: more kids and teens in the U.S. are dying from guns than ever before.
While car crashes have traditionally been the leading cause of death among kids for the last two decades, firearm accidents have become the top cause of fatalities in the last two years. According to data released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4,368 Americans under 19 years old died from gun violence in 2020, which includes 2,811 homicides and 1,293 suicides. By comparison, almost 4,000 kids died in cars that same year.
“If you look at the trajectory over the last several years, that should raise alarm,” Dr. Jason Goldstick, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan, told ABC News. “The fact that this is the leading cause of death among kids is obscene.”
While reachers say the reason behind this increase is unclear, what’s especially stark about these findings are the deep disparities: Black kids ages 1 to 19 have died from guns at a rate more than four times that of white children. And though Black youth have long endured the highest rates of gun deaths, they experienced a 39 percent increase in 2020, the single largest jump of any other racial or ethnic group.
Some areas are also more at risk than others: D.C. topped the CDC’s list with the highest firearm death rate, followed by Louisiana, Alaska, and Mississippi. Check out the full list below:
States with highest firearm deaths
*per 100,000 children in 2020
1. Louisiana (12.9 percent)
2. Alaska (12 percent)
3. Mississippi (10.9 percent)
4. South Carolina (9.9 percent)
5. Arkansas (9.8 percent)
6. Kansas (8.9 percent)
7. Indiana (8.7 percent)
8. Kentucky (8.6 percent)
9. Missouri (8.5 percent)
10. Alabama (7.8 percent)
