While 19 children were killed in a school shooting at a school in the state of Texas last Tuesday, officials said that there was an increase in the death rate from firearms in the United States. The number one cause of death for the young population in the U.S. is firearms, which surpass traffic accidents.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a total of 4,368 children and adults died from gunshot death in 2020. This number corresponds to a mortality rate of 5.4 per 100 thousand. Homicides account for about 2 in 3 of gun deaths.
By comparison, the main reason for the death of this age group in the past was traffic accidents. In 2020, 4 thousand 36 young people and children lost their lives in car accidents.
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With safety measures for traffic accidents being improved and more young people or children dying due to guns, the gap between these two causes of death is expected to widen.
According to CDC data, about 30 percent of child and adolescent deaths were due to suicide, of which about 3 percent were unintentional and 2 percent were related to unclear causes. A very low proportion of gun deaths were determined to be the result of legal intervention or self-defense.
Black children and adolescents have lost the most lives in shootings. This shows that four times more black children and adolescents die in shootings than in car crashes, which are the number one cause of death for white children. The second group in which the highest number of people lost their lives due to guns was the local people.
Men are 6 times more likely to lose their lives due to firearms than women.
Washington was the state where the highest number of people lost their lives due to guns. Further down the list are Louisiana and Alaska.
Scientist Holden Thorp called for an investigation into the impact of guns on public health in a bid to push for changes to gun acquisition policy. “The authorities should not sit on the sidelines and watch others fight with guns,” Thorp said.
“Research into the public health effects of gun acquisition will allow more evidence to gather about the lethal consequences of guns,” Thorp said. The statement said the gunmen were mentally ill and that the shootings were not so common in other countries.
