According to USA Today, the latest report shows that gun violence has been the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the United States for three consecutive years, and the trend of deaths among children and adolescents of color from gun violence is particularly "worrying."
According to a recent report released by the Johns Hopkins University Gun Violence Program Center, the gun-related death rate among people aged 1 to 17 in the United States has increased by 106% since 2013. Since 2020, gun violence has become the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in this age group.
The report also pointed out that the number of deaths in gun-related incidents in the United States has exceeded the number of deaths caused by car accidents, drug overdoses and cancer. In the United States, an average of 7 young people die from gun violence every day, and 30% of the deaths of teenagers aged 15 to 17 are caused by guns.
The report particularly emphasizes that the situation in which children and adolescents of color in the United States are "disproportionately" affected by gun violence is worthy of attention.
In 2022, the gun homicide rate for African American children aged 1 to 17 in the United States was 18 times that of their white peers, and the gun homicide rate for Hispanic/Latino youth was more than three times that of white youth.
Over the past decade, the gun-related suicide rate among African-American teens has tripled, and the gun-related suicide rate among Hispanic/Latino teens has more than doubled.
Recent gun violence incidents in the United States have once again sparked public discussion, calling on Congress to pass stricter gun control bills. This includes the shooting at Apalachic High School in Barrow County, Georgia on September 4, where a 14-year-old gunman shot and killed two teachers and two high school students.
According to statistics from the U.S. Gun Violence Archive website, there have been 397 mass shootings in the United States since 2024, and more than 1,000 children and teenagers have died from gun violence. The organization defines a mass shooting as a shooting that kills or injures at least four people.