The child mortality rate in the United States has improved over the past century, especially after medical treatments for once-incurable diseases were introduced. That said, the mortality rate is still higher compared to many other high-income countries.
The New York Times recently analyzed child mortality data to determine the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the US. The analysis specifically looked at data from 2019 to 2021.
In the analysis, they identified guns as the top cause of death among children.
What Does Data Show?
As of the year 2020, gun violence and firearms were the leading killers of children, replacing car crashes. In fact, the outlet noted that gun-related deaths alone accounted for nearly half of the increase in deaths among young people.
Based on data, there were 1,001 children aged 0 to 17 killed in gun violence crimes in 2019 alone. This figure increased to 1,393 in 2020 and 1,578 in 2021, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which collates gun violence deaths in mass shootings, homicides, officer-involved shootings, murder-suicides, defensive use, and unintentional shooting.
As of Tuesday, there have already been 1,249 young children and adolescents who were killed in gun violence-related incidents in the US. Of those, 213 are children aged 0 to 11, and 1,036 are teens aged 12 to 17.
What Other Analysis Reports
Despite the already high figures from the Gun Violence Archive, a Pew Research report paints an even grimmer picture. In its analysis of mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Pew Research found that 1,732 children and teens under the age of 18 were killed by gunfire in 2019.
The number of gun deaths among US kids increased to 2,281 in 2020 and 2,590 in 2021. That is a 46% increase between 2019 and 2021.
In 60% of all cases reported in 2021 alone, children and teens died by homicide. A little over a half (32%) were by suicide, 5% were in accidental shootings, and 3% were other cases.
In comparison, only 42% of gun deaths among adults were a result of homicide. However, suicides accounted for 55% of gun deaths among adults in 2021.
