More American kids die from guns than any other cause of death.
In 2021, gun violence replaced car crashes as the leading cause of death for children in the U.S. Since then, it’s remained the leading killer.
More than 4,450 kids ages 19 and younger died in 2023, the most recent year for available data on the CDC’s WONDER database.
By contrast, 3,889 kids died in car crashes, 2,026 died from poisoning, 1,782 died from cancer and 1,218 died from suffocation, according to WONDER, which collects mortality information from death certificates at the state level.
These trends underscore the need for deeper reporting. Here’s some more context and story angles to consider to get you started.
Story angles
A major driver of childhood gun violence is suicide. And access to guns increases the likelihood of death by suicide for children and adolescents more than fourfold and 90% of youth gun suicides involve firearms from the victim’s own home or a relative’s. Advocates and medical professionals have long pushed for safe storage requirements in homes with children to help prevent these deaths.
As we previously covered, Black kids and teens are dying by suicide much more frequently. The suicide rate for Black youth has been increasing faster than that of any racial and ethnic group.
LGBTQ+ youth are also at a higher risk for suicide. They are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers, according to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on ending suicide among LGBTQ+ young people.
They are not inherently prone to suicide because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, rather due to the marginalization and stigmatization they face, according to the Trevor Project.
- In addition to suicide, community violence also poses a risk to children, especially in Black communities and in disadvantaged areas. For example, kids living in the poorest neighborhoods are up to 20 times more likely to be shot than their peers living in well-off areas, one study found. Firearm death rates among kids increased 46% from 2019 to 2021, primarily driven by gun assaults, according to a KFF report. Nonfatal shooting injuries are two to four times more likely to occur than fatal ones, according to KFF, and Black youth are much more likely than their white counterparts to be injured by or exposed to a gun violence incident.
- The impacts of living in high violence areas go beyond the risk of physical safety. There are several other health issues they could face, including an increased likelihood of depression, PTSD, anxiety and poor academic performance. One study found that living in neighborhoods with high levels of violence can affect children’s development.
The trauma of experiencing regular violence in their environment can also worsen a kid’s mental health and their ability to learn, several studies have demonstrated. In one study from the University of Chicago, exposure to community violence creates emotional and psychological distress that disrupts kids’ lives, making them more likely to join gangs, engage in risky sexual behavior and drop out of school.
- Look for interesting angles in the data. For example, I like that this story from The Trace focused on how gun violence is the leading cause of death for Gen Z. They analyzed data from the WONDER database and found that in 2023, 11,368 Zoomers (people born between 1997 and 2012) were killed by firearms — more than died from overdoses, car accidents and cancer. And guns have been Gen Z’s leading cause of death since 2017, their analysis found.
I like that they contrasted that figure with data from 20 years ago and found that the top cause of death for people of similar ages to Gen Z, 11 to 26 years old, was car crashes.
Data and resources
- The previously mentioned WONDER database from the CDC is a helpful resource for nationwide and state-by-state mortality data, but it takes awhile for recent numbers to be posted.
- The National Violent Death Reporting System is also a useful resource. Several states have also created theirversion of the violent death reporting system.
- The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub, provides support, resources and reliable data to newsrooms, researchers, and the public.
- The Gun Violence Archive is a nonprofit that provides near real-time, comprehensive and detailed data on gun violence incidents in the U.S. (We’ve covered this useful resource before.)
AHCJ’s past coverage of kids and guns
The gun violence impacting kids is a topic we’ve covered often. Here’s a rundown of helpful posts on the topic:
- Kids in disadvantaged ZIP codes face up to 20 times higher odds of getting shot. Kids living in the poorest neighborhoods are up to 20 times more likely to be shot than their peers living in well-off areas, according to a multi-state study from Northwestern Medicine.
- Study detects frequent gunshots near children walking to school. An Ohio State University study using acoustic-detection sensors along walkable routes to and from schools in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, detected 610 gunshots fired during the 2021-2022 school year on days when school was in session.
- Underreported twin health crises: Gun violence and maternal mortality. Murders are a leading cause of maternal mortality in the U.S. — and maternal homicides are most often perpetrated with guns, commonly at the hands of an intimate partner. Kids are also often secondary victims of domestic violence — not only physically, but psychologically and emotionally.
- Addressing childhood abuse could prevent firearm violence later in life. A study from the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law found that a person who experiences abuse, neglect or family violence in their childhood are at risk for gun violence perpetrated against themselves and others later in life.
- A tip sheet, full of story ideas and resources, on how to cover how suicide rates are climbing among Black youth. The suicide death rate among Black kids has been increasing faster than any racial and ethnic group: the rate more than doubled from 2007 to 2017.
- Children in U.S. face rising risk of losing a parent to firearm violence or overdose. Drugs and firearms caused 23% of all parental deaths in 2020 compared to 12% in 1999, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
- Gun violence increases physical, mental health disorders among children, survivors and families, study says. That study from the National Institute for Health Care Management examined the extent of the toll of firearm violence on children and their families and the economic and health burdens they face.
