- Deaths attributed to guns now account for nearly 30 percent of deaths among children and adolescents in the U.S.
- Gun violence has increased rapidly during the pandemic in the U.S.
- A school shooting in Texas has left at least 21 people dead.
Yesterday’s school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — in which at least 19 children and two teachers died — is the deadliest school shooting to occur since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that claimed 26 lives in 2012.
The mass shooting is the27th school shootingto occur this year.
Gun-related deaths affecting children have beenincreasingin recent years. Last month a new report found that guns had surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death in children and teenagers in the United States.
“More and more it is clear no place is safe – malls, schools, movie theaters, places of worship, and grocery stores have all been targeted. Firearm injuries and deaths are preventable,” he said. “And while the ideal time to act and find common-sense solutions and common ground might have been years ago, the best we can do now is act today.”
Between 2019 and 2020, gun deaths in kids and adolescents increased by 29.5 percent, according to areportpublished in the New England Journal of Medicine last month.
The increase is twice as high as the increase recorded in the general population.
The report also found that drug overdoses and poisoning in children and adolescents increased by 83.6 percent, making it the third leading cause of death in young people after car crashes.
Mental health issues in young people worldwide have been increasing in recent years, and public health experts say the pandemic has intensified the isolation, loneliness, and stress that young people were already feeling.
容易获得枪支,枪支暴力已经成为联合国iquely American problem.
“Adolescents are a reflection of what has taken place in the overall population. Gun violence has increased at an alarming rate in the United States. That rate is exponential when it comes to children,”Dr. Howard Pratt, a psychiatrist and Behavioral Health Medical Director atCommunity Health of South Florida, Inc., told Healthline.
New evidence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that 45,222 firearm-related deaths were reported in 2020.
Gun-related deaths in children and adolescents saw a 29.5 percent increase. Of those deaths, gun-related homicides increased by 33.4 percent, and gun-related suicides increased by 1.1 percent.
Drug overdoses and poisoning increased by 83.6 percent and became the third leading cause of death among children and adolescents.
Gun homicide rates among young people vary from state to state — Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Alabama, and Illinois typically seethe highest rates. Gun-relatedsuicidesare more common among white and Native American children.
The researchers say the findings highlight the need to invest in the prevention of firearm violence.
“I echo what the authors stated – gun violence is preventable, and we have an increasing understanding of how to prevent this crisis,”Jeff Temple, PhD, a licensed psychologist, and director of the Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
“In addition to common-sense gun control such as safe storage and enforcement of red flag laws, we need universally administered community- and school-based programs that effectively prevent violence,” Temple added.
Gun-related deaths had been relatively stable from1999 to 2014but gradually increased between
Researchfrom the gun safety organization Everytown found that there was a 64 percent increase in gun purchases from 2019 to 2020.
From March to December 2020, the U.S. saw a30 percent increasein unintentional fatal shootings by children compared to 2019.
“More young people are carrying guns, guns are more easily accessible to young people, and they are using them more frequently to settle disputes,” saysDaniel Flannery, PhD, the director of the Begun Center for Violence Prevention and Research at Case Western Reserve University.
Public health experts believe the pandemic’s many stressors — including months of social isolation, record-high unemployment levels, and school and office closures — have contributed to the surge in gun violence.
Pratt says children typically rely on the social support they get through school.
“Kids have spent more time out of school, isolated from support systems, not interacting with others, so they lack important connections to adults, mentors, and peers,” Flannery said.
Young people have also spent more time on social media, whichstudieshave linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide ideation.
“在我们的全球精神卫生危机youth that started before the pandemic. The isolation, loneliness, loss, stress, and economic hardships related to the pandemic only worsened this problem,” says Temple.
Guns are now the leading cause of death in children and teenagers in the United States. Gun-related deaths among children and adolescents increased by 29.5 percent from 2019 to 2020 — which is twice as high as the increase recorded in the general population.