CNN
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Guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the US, having surpassed car accidents in 2020.
Firearms accounted for nearly 19% of childhood deaths (ages 1-18) in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wonder database. Nearly 3,600 children died in gun-related incidents that year. That’s about five children out of every 100,000 children in the United States. In no other comparable country are firearms among the top four causes of child mortality, according to a KFF analysis.
The shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville on Monday marked the 16th shooting this year in grades K-12 and the deadliest since the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last year, according to a CNN analysis of school shooting data. Six people – three children and three adults – died.
There have been 130 mass shootings so far in 2023, the highest number of shootings recorded at this point in any year since at least 2013, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
Child and adolescent deaths in general have increased during the Covid-19 pandemic — driven not by Covid-19 deaths but by fatal injuries, according to a new study in JAMA. Firearms accounted for nearly half of the increase in deaths in 2020.
