Washington: America has seen an alarming increase in gun violence in recent years, with pistols/guns becoming the leading cause of death among children.
According to American media, the study examined the number of American children killed by pistols from 2018 to 2021. The study found that firearm deaths increased by nearly 42 percent during that period.
Dr. Chetan Sathia, a pediatric trauma surgeon and director of the Center for Gun Violence Prevention at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park and study author, said the rate of gun violence in the country is skyrocketing and getting worse. .
There is also a growing racial and economic bias in the rates of gun violence among children, with black children being the most affected, and there is no single reason for the increase in these grim statistics.
The doctor said that most of these deaths are due to accidental firing from guns/pistols kept in homes, but murders, violence and assaults with weapons also add to these rates.
The doctor also said that the number of children killed by guns increased by 28.8 percent in 2020 because more people bought guns during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a boom in gun purchases. The study shows there were 4,752 firearm-related deaths among children in 2021, an 8.8 percent increase from 2020.
Of these deaths, 64.3 percent were homicides, 30 percent were suicides, and 3.5 percent were the result of unintentional accidents.
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