More than 6,000 children and teens were injured or killed in shootings in 2022. What’s contributing to the rise in gun violence?
It was less than an hour into 2022 when the first child was shot. The 14-year-old girl was standing outside watching fireworks in St. Louis when a bullet hit her in the arm.
In the year since, more than 6,000 children and teens were injured or killed in shootings, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive. That’s the most in a single year since the database began tracking nine years ago.
As the epidemic of gun violence continues to wreak havoc on the nation, here’s how shootings affected America’s children in 2022.
What to know about child gun deaths, injuries in 2022
- More than 1,300 teens (ages 12-17) were killed and nearly 3,800 injured in 2022, according to the archive. More than 300 children (ages 11 and younger) were killed and nearly 700 injured. Those figures includes homicides, accidental discharges and more but do not include suicides.
Source: A record number of America’s kids were injured or killed by gunfire in 2022