Guns are the leading cause of death for children in the United States

Memorial to the students killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School, Texas, USA – Photo: REUTERS

Overall, 4,368 children and adolescents 19 years of age and younger died from firearms in 2020, or 5.4 per 100,000 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to the CDC, nearly 70% of gun deaths in this age group are homicides, nearly 30% are due to suicide, more than 3% are unintentional, and about 2% cannot be identified.

By comparison, there were 4,036 vehicle-related deaths in 2020, the former leading cause of death in this age group.

The gap is narrowing as road safety measures have gradually improved over the decades while the number of gun deaths has increased, AFP news agency reported on May 26.

And gun deaths surpassed vehicle-related deaths in 2020, the latest year for which data is available, according to a finding published in the journal Nature. New England Medicine (NEJM) last week.

The authors of the findings also note that the new data is consistent with other evidence that gun violence has increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic for reasons that are not entirely clear.

However, according to the authors, it is impossible to predict whether gun violence will eventually decline to pre-pandemic levels.

According to AFP, the number of deaths among black children and adolescents in the United States is four times higher than that of white children. By region, the highest gun-related death rates are in Washington DC, followed by Louisiana and Alaska.

The latest gun-related murder occurred on May 24 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The suspect, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was at Robb’s school for about 40 minutes before police arrived and knocked him down.

In the latest development, according to Reuters news agency, the suspect Ramos entered the school through an unlocked gate before shooting and killing 19 students and two teachers in the classroom.

According to city policy of Uvalde, schools must lock all gates and doors, including classroom doors, as a safety precaution. However, one student told Reuters that some gates remained open on May 24 to allow parents to attend a school event.