Dec. 19 (UPI) — Two studies released Monday in JAMA Pediatrics offer similarly stark views on the impact of gun violence on society’s most vulnerable members: children.
One indicates the overall U.S. child homicide rate has increased annually — on average 4.3% since 2013 — with a dramatic 27.7% rise rise from 2019 to 2020 alone.
The other shows a surge — of more than 50% — in pediatric firearms injuries that were treated at U.S. children’s hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, throughout 2021, versus pre-pandemic.
Put in a broader context, guns now kill more children up to age 19 than any other cause in the United States, according to a study of the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April.
According to the first study, an original investigation led by the CDC, 38,362 children ages 17 and younger — nearly 7 in 10 of the victims male — died by homicide in the United States from 1999 to 2020.
Source: Two studies, one finding: Guns injure, kill rising number of children in U.S.