US study lists toll of child gun violence
Print Edition
SHOOTINGS kill or injure at least 19 children in the United States each day — with boys, teenagers and blacks most at risk, according to a government study.
The analysis of 2002-14 data is billed as the most comprehensive US study on the topic. While it mostly confirms previously released information, it underscores why researchers view gun violence as a public health crisis.
The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention involves children through age 17. It was compiled by analyzing death certificates and emergency room reports.
Among the findings published yesterday in the journal Pediatrics:
The yearly toll is nearly 1,300 deaths and almost 6,000 nonfatal gunshot wounds — most of them intentional.
Most deaths result from homicides and suicides, while assaults caused most of the nonfatal injuries.
The annual death rate is nearly two out of 100,000 children — the rate is double for blacks — while nonfatal gunshot wounds injure almost eight out of 100,000 children.
Suicide rate rises
Suicides increased from 2007 to 2014, from 325 to 532. The suicide rate rose 60 percent over those years to 1.6 per 100,000. A third of these children were depressed and most had experienced a recent crisis, including relationship breakups and problems at school.
Homicides fell from 2007-14, from 1,038 to 699, the rate dropping by 36 percent to less than one per 100,000.
Most unintentional deaths resulted from playing with guns and unintentionally pulling the trigger. Most victims were bystanders although among children up to age 10 in this group, more than 40 percent accidentally shot themselves.
The report notes that unintentional shooting deaths may be significantly under reported. This was highlighted in a report by the AP and USA Today news organizations that found during the first six months of 2016, minors died from accidental shootings — at their own hands, or at the hands of other children or adults — at a pace of one every other day — far more than limited US federal statistics indicate.
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