For age 1 to 19, car accidents had been the most common cause of death, but guns killed more in 2020, and again in 2021. (Dan Keating/AP)
Firearms killed more children and adolescents in 2020 than car accidents, which had long been the leading cause of death for youngsters, a Washington Post analysis has found.
The change was caused by a 30% increase in gun deaths for people 19 and younger in 2020. Gun deaths continued to outpace cars for that age group in 2021, The Post found, as the rate of gun killings increased an additional 8%.
The Post analysis reviewed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention death records for people ages 1 through 19 from 2011 through October 2021. A research letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) last week pointed out that firearms had become the leading cause of death for those ages in 2020, passing motor vehicle deaths, which include pedestrians, cyclists and skateboarders.
The Post found deep racial disparities within the overall pattern. Non-Hispanic Black youths are the only group for whom guns are deadlier than cars. For non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics and non-Hispanic Native Americans, cars still kill many more youngsters than guns do, The Post found.
A prayer service at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)
Black youths, who have long suffered the highest gun death rates among all racial and ethnic groups, experienced a 39% jump — the largest increase — in 2020. The rate for Black youths increased an additional 13% in the first 10 months of 2021, the latest for which CDC death records are available.
Gun deaths also increased 37% for Hispanic youths in 2020 and 17% for non-Hispanic Whites. Vehicles, however, still kill more youngsters than guns for those demographic groups.
Firearm deaths also increased 34% for non-Hispanic Native Americans and Alaskan Natives in 2020. That group has the second-highest rate of gun deaths after non-Hispanic Blacks.
Asians have the lowest death rates caused by firearms, as well as vehicles. Guns killed about the same number of Asian youngsters as vehicles in 2020 and 2021. The rate of firearm deaths declined for Asians in both years.
"The increasing firearm-related mortality reflects a longer-term trend and shows that we continue to fail to protect our youth from a preventable cause of death," wrote the authors of the NEJM research paper.
The country is very active in trying to reduce vehicle deaths, said Jennifer Whitehill, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts who specializes in preventing injuries. The government spends money and uses research to craft policies for safer roadways and vehicles.
"But our government has proved itself unwilling or unable to do the same with firearm deaths and injuries," Whitehill said.
Although governments "regulate drivers and vehicles," she said, "sensible policies that could reduce shootings are not being widely implemented."
If the country treated gun deaths as preventable — as it does with vehicle accidents - Whitehill said, "families might not be experiencing this heartbreak and terrible loss again and again."
