Gun Violence Statistics and Studies

CHILDREN & GUNS: A LETHAL COMBINATION

• In 2006, 2.225 children and teenagers were murdered with guns, 763 committed suicide with guns, and 154 died in unintentional shootings.  Thirty-four  were killed in a police intervention, and another 42 died, but the intent was not known.  A total of 3,218 young people were killed by firearms in the U.S.³
  
  
• In 2006, 82% of murder victims aged 12 to 24 years old were killed with a firearm.⁴
  
  
• Firearm homicide is the second-leading cause of death (after motor vehicle crashes) for young people ages 1-19 in the U.S.⁵
  
  
• The rate of firearm death of under 14-years-old is nearly 12 times higher in the U.S. than in 25 other industrialized countries combined.⁶
  
  
• In one year, for every child and teenager killed by a gun, 6 are non-fatally wounded.⁷
  
  
• In 2005, firearms were responsible for 17% of injury deaths for Caucasian teens ages 13-19 in the United States, 52% of deaths for African-American teens, 22% of Native American/Alaska Native teens, and 19% of Asian/Pacific Islander teens.⁸
  
  
• Community violence, including gun violence, has the equivalent emotional impact on children as war or natural disaster.⁹
  
  

Updated May 2009

Endnotes:

1. WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control, 2006 data, http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html (hereafter Injury Mortality Reports). 
2. WISQARS, Nonfatal Injury Reports, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control, 2007 data, http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html (hereafter Nonfatal Injury Reports).
3. WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports.
4. Puzzanchera, C. and Kang, W. (2008). "Easy Access to the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports: 1980-2006." Online. Available: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/ojstatbb/ezashr/. Data source: Federal Bureau of Investigation. Supplementary Homicide Reports 1980-2006 [machine-readable data files].
5. WISQARS, Leading Causes of Death Reports, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control, 2006 data, http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus10.html
6.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  "Firearm-Related Death in 26 Industrialized Countries," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1997, 46(5): 101-105.
7. WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports.
8. WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports. Numbers may not add up to 100 because of rounding.
9. Fowler, Patrick J., et al, “Community Violence: A Meta-Analysis on the Effect of Exposure and Mental Health Outcomes of Children and Adolescents,” Development and Psychopathology 21 (2009):227-259