How easy could be the simplest of safety practices to secure firearms with safes and locks rather than the pernicious stupidity of gun owner-operators and the needless deaths of bystanders. Not included is data about stolen firearms or the ideological dispositions of gun owners.
Last year was a particularly violent one: 3,597 children died by gunfire. And while the statistics for this year are incomplete, it is clear that the carnage has not receded. nyti.ms/3WjRP1Z
Last year, nearly two-thirds of gun deaths involving children were homicides, up 73% since 2018.
And while no group of American children has been spared, Black and Hispanic children are more likely to be killed. nyti.ms/3WjRP1Z
Gun suicides are up too, by nearly 30% since 2018. Unlike homicides, gun suicides disproportionately involve white children, mostly teenage boys. nyti.ms/3WjRP1Z
Gun violence is rising all over the U.S., but children in big cities are more than three times as likely to be killed as children in small towns.
While most of the states with the highest rates of child gun deaths are in the South, nowhere is immune.
nyti.ms/3WjRP1Z
The U.S. is an extreme outlier in child gun deaths. Researchers found that among large and wealthy nations, the U.S. accounted for 46% of the child population but 97% of all child gun deaths. See our examination of how guns are shaping American childhood.
This year, @NYTMag’s The Lives They Lived issue is about 12 children who died from gun violence — just a few of the thousands of children killed by firearms this year.
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