Guns remain leading cause of death for children and teens in the US, report says

Firearms were the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States for the third consecutive year, and homicides accounted for the majority of gun deaths among the age group, a new report found.

The report − published Thursday by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions − analyzed the latest data on gun violence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which revealed that more than 48,000 people across the country died from gun violence in 2022. Of those deaths, more than 2,500 children and teens ages 1 to 17 died by a firearm.

"In the U.S., gun death rates in this age group have increased by 106 percent since 2013 and have been the leading cause of death among this group since 2020," the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions said in a news release.

The report underscores the rapid increase of gun violence in the U.S. in recent years and its effect on young people. Health officials, including Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, have called gun violence a "public health crisis" that is the leading cause of premature death for Americans.

The rate of firearm-related deaths "reached a near three-decade high in 2021," an advisory on gun violence issued by Murthy in June said. There were 48,830 gun-related deaths in the U.S. in 2021, according to the CDC.

The second-highest total of gun deaths ever recorded was in 2022, when 48,204 people died from gun-related injuries, the report noted. It added that those deaths included more than 27,000 suicides, an all-time high for the country.

The death toll shows that "troubling trends" still persist among vulnerable demographic groups, including growing disparities across racial and ethnic groups such as Black and Latino youth, according to the report.

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Gun deaths disproportionately impact Black youth

While the overall gun violence rate decreased in 2022 after "peaking in 2021 amid the social unrest of the COVID-19 pandemic," according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, guns remained the leading cause of death among children and teens.

"Gun death rates doubled from 2013 to 2022 for children and teens (ages 1–17)," according to the report. "In 2022, nearly three times as many teens (ages 10–17) died by gun homicide compared to 2013, increasing from 541 in 2013 to 1,486 in 2022."

The number of gun-related deaths among the age group surpassed the number of deaths from car crashes, overdoses and cancers, the report said. It noted that an average of seven young people died each day from gun violence, and firearms accounted for 30% of deaths among older teens ages 15 to 17.

The report also highlighted the disproportionate consequences of gun violence on children and teens of color:

• In 2022, Black young people ages 1 to 17 had a gun homicide rate 18 times higher compared with white children and teens. And the rate for Hispanic/Latino children and teens was more than three times higher than for white young people.
• Gun suicide rates have increased over the past decade, tripling among Black youth ages 10 to 17 and more than doubling for Hispanic/Latino youth ages 10 to 17.
• Fifty-five percent of deaths among older Black teens ages15 to 17 in 2022 were caused by guns.
• Across all age groups, American Indian/Alaskan Native people were five times more likely to die by gun homicide compared with white people in the same age group.

Rise in gun violence incidents across US schools

The U.S. has already seen 389 mass shootings in 2024, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that defines mass shootings as incidents involving four or more victims. And so far this year, there have been 28 school shootings that resulted in injuries or deaths, according to data compiled by Education Week, a news organization that covers K-12 education.

A study released last month by the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety found that there was a 31% increase in school shootings over the past academic year compared with the previous year. After the 2021-2022 school year, which had the highest number of gun violence incidents on campuses, Everytown tracked at least 144 incidents of gun violence on campuses for the 2023-24 school year.

"Nearly four in 10 of those shot in these school incidents were students," Everytown said in the study.

What can the US do about gun violence?

Recent gun violence incidents, including last week when a 14-year-old opened fire at a Georgia high school and killed two teachers and two students, have renewed debates on gun violence and calls for stricter gun laws.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions report provided several policy recommendations to address the gun violence crisis among young people, including strengthening and adopting Child Access Prevention laws.

"More than half of all U.S. gun owners do not practice safe firearm storage," the report noted. "In fact, 4.6 million minors in the U.S. live in homes with at least one gun that is loaded and unlocked, exposing children to firearms and increasing the risk of gun violence among children and youth."

Other recommendations given were firearm licensing laws with background checks and required safety training; removing firearms from those at risk of violence to themselves or others; community violence intervention programs; regulating carrying firearms in public; and repealing stand-your-ground laws.

"The research is clear − these policies can help reduce rates of gun violence, including the record-high rates we’re seeing among our nation’s youngest and most vulnerable," Cassandra Crifasi, report co-author and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said in a statement.

Contributing: Kayla Jimenez