It has happened. United States’ love for firearms has grown to such an extent that now in the country gun-related deaths among children and adolescents have overtaken even vehicle accidents.
As per data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the US in 2020 saw 45,222 firearm-related deaths, which means that every day, roughly 109 people die as a result of a firearm-related injury.
Also read | Trump vs Biden: Gun violence in Joe Biden’s US sees a sharp escalation
Six out of ten deaths involved a firearm, and more than three out of ten involved a firearm homicide.
Previous analyses have also shown an increasing trend in firearm-related mortality however the latest data shows a sharp 13.5 per cent spike number of such deaths in the period of just one year; between 2019 and 2020.
According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the spike in gun-related deaths among Americans aged one to 19 was part of a nationwide 33.4 per cent increase in firearm homicides.
The research also points out that the rate of suicides using firearms also experienced a 1.1 per cent spike.
Watch | Gun violence in US: How easy is it to buy a gun in America?
It continues to say that a “previous analysis, which examined data through 2016, showed that firearm-related injuries were second only to motor vehicle crashes (both traffic-related and nontraffic-related) as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents, defined as persons 1 to 19 years of age”.
However, the difference has decreased since 2016, and firearm-related injuries became the main cause of death in that age range in 2020.
According to the Children’s Defense Fund, almost 193,000 children and teenagers have been killed by weapons on American territory since 1963. This is more than four times the number of American soldiers killed in combat in the Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars combined. This means that on average more than 3000 children die every year due to gun violence.
Also read | Biden’s order to target ‘ghost guns’ in reforms against increasing gun violence
The rate of all types of firearm-related deaths (suicide, homicide, unintentional, and undetermined) among children and adolescents grew by 29.5 per cent between 2019 and 2020, more than twice as much as the entire population.
This increase has been attributed by experts to an increase in the number of guns owned by civilians. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, American civilians had 393 million weapons in 2017, which equates to more than one gun per person. The US military and law enforcement organisations, on the other hand, only had 5.5 million.
According to the NGO, nearly one out of every five weapons is sold without a background check because of a loophole in federal law that exempts sales at gun shows, online, or between private individuals.
Between January and April 2021, 7.5 million US individuals – about 3 per cent of the population – became first-time gun owners, according to a separate study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in February.
As a result, 11 million people, including five million children, are now exposed to home weapons.
(With inputs from agencies)
