Title: Protect Children Not Guns 2010

Publication Date: August 2010

What does it say?

This annual report from the Children’s Defense Fund documents the impact on children and teens (0-19) of weak gun laws and easy access to guns. The report is based on the latest information available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007) and includes information on gun homicides, suicides, and unintentional shooting deaths by age group, race/ethnicity, and state. 

Key findings:

• In 2007, 3,042 children lost their lives to gun violence and an additional 17,523 suffered non-fatal gun injuries and the emotional aftermath that followed (p. 1).
• The annual number of firearm deaths of white children and teens decreased by 54 percent between 1979 and 2007, while the deaths of black children and teens increased by 61 percent (p. 8).
• The number of children and teens in America killed by guns in 2007 would fill more than 122 public school classrooms of 25 students each (p. 2).
• The 3,042 children and teens killed by gunfire in the U.S. in 2007 is comparable to the total number of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq and four times the number of American combat fatalities in Afghanistan to date (p. 1). 
• More preschoolers (under age 5) died by gunfire (85) than law enforcement officers (57) killed in the line of duty (p. 2).

How can I use it?

Although crime nationwide is at historically low levels, the toll of weak gun laws on U.S. children remains at appalling levels, especially among African-American children.  Use the data in this report to communicate the size of the problem of child and teen gun deaths in the U.S. via comparisons to military losses, to classrooms of children, and to law enforcement deaths.

Citation

Children's Defense Fund, Protect Children Not Guns 2010, September 2010