Guns wound, kill over 6,000 children in the US

• 

Guns have been responsible for the injuries, and even deaths, of more than 6,000 children in the United States, Gun Violence Archive, an NGO that tracks shooting incidents, said on Tuesday.

The Gun Violence Archive found 6,023 children 17 years old or younger were killed or injured by gunfire in 2022 - the highest number of such incidents ever recorded in the organization's nine-year history.

At least 306 children under the age of 12 have died in shootings this year, with more than 1,300 children between the ages of 12 and 17 having died by gunfire.

The Gun Violence Archive said that 2022 saw the most child deaths or injuries by gunfire since the nonprofit started tracking gunfire-related information in 2014.

According to a University of Michigan analysis published back in April, gun violence overtook vehicle accidents as the main cause of mortality among children and adolescents in the United States by 2020.

Meanwhile, firearms were found to have been used in 79% of homicides and 53% of suicides in the United States in 2020.

According to the researchers, a study of mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found an almost 30 percent rise in gun-related fatalities among Americans under the age of 19 between 2019 and 2020. Suicides, unintentional shootings, and killings account for the majority of these deaths, with homicides exceeding the other two categories.

Check out: Congress members who benefit the most from gun rights groups

Since 2016, the number of deaths from automobile accidents and gun killings among newborns, children, and young people has been increasing. The researchers discovered that drug overdoses and poisoning climbed by more than 80% between 2019 and 2020, becoming the third top cause of mortality among this population.

Another study, published last week in JAMA Pediatrics showed increasing homicide rates among children following the pandemic, finding that the number of kids with gun injuries flooding hospitals in the US “significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained elevated throughout 2021.”

The study took count of "all children younger than 18 years diagnosed with firearm injury," and used "data from the Pediatric Health Information System."

According to the study, 1,815 gun injuries were calculated before the pandemic but 2,759 were recorded during the pandemic - indicating a 52% spike.

The WSJ cited researchers saying that "psychological stress and other factors associated with the pandemic might have played a role in the rise in the incidence of firearm injuries and homicides among children."

In recent years, as data shows, the homicide rate among children has been on the rise "on average 4.3% since 2013," and has gone up 27.7% from 2019 to 2020. Males, African-American children, Latino kids, kids in the south, and those residing in urban and rural regions count for the majority of these statistics. It also increased for kids aged 6 to 17 years.

It is worth noting that mass shootings have shocked the country on numerous occasions, reigniting debate on gun control, a contentious cultural issue that has made little progress in US Congress.

In June, US President Joe Biden pleaded for lawmakers to pass stricter gun control laws, including a ban on assault weapons, in a bid to clamp down on unprecedented levels of mass shootings across the United States, which have been turning American communities into "killing fields". So far, no action has been taken.