The number of children shot and killed in the United States in 2022 exceeded 6000. The Gun Violence Archive found that at least 6032 children, 17 years of age and younger, had been the victims of America's deadly gun epidemic.
Washington, January 5 (RHC)-- The number of children shot and killed in the United States in 2022 exceeded 6000. The Gun Violence Archive found that at least 6032 children, 17 years of age and younger, had been the victims of America's deadly gun epidemic.
That was the highest fatality rate since the GVA started keeping a record of gun violence casualties in 2014. The figure reflected a notable increase since last year when arbitrary deployment of firearms by civilians was found to be responsible for around 5700 casualties across the country.
At least 306 children, 11 years old or younger, have been killed by gunfire with 668 being injured. Additionally, 1325 teenagers aged 12 to 17 died by gunfire with 3732 being injured. More than 6,000 children have been either killed or injured so far in 2022 across the United States as a result of gun violence, an American nonprofit group reports.
In December, the GVA said there had been a total of 609 mass shootings in 2022 in the United States so far, it is projected to reach around 675 by the end of the year. The grim statistics come after a three year old girl in Kansas City, Missouri, was killed on Christmas Eve in what police suspect was an accidental shooting.
The child shooting deaths in 2022 also include 19 students, all 11 years old or younger, killed in a mass shooting on May 24 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. One of the youngest victims killed by gunfire this year was a five month old who was shot in the head while sitting in a car in Chicago during a June 24 drive by shooting.
The United States has been suffering from an expanding trend of gun violence and episodes of mass shootings.
In July, U.S. President Joe Biden said that a flood of guns was turning American communities into killing fields
According to new data just released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, guns are the number one killer of children in the United States of America, number one killer, more than car accidents more than cancer. Over the last two decades, more school aged children have died from guns than on duty police officers and active duty military combined.
In October the CDC released data on US firearm deaths last year counting over 47,000 which is the most in at least 40 years. The U.S. population is growing but researchers say the rate of gun deaths has been getting worse, too. America's gun related homicide and suicide rates both rose 8% last year, hitting unprecedented levels since the early 1990s.
In a new study, researchers examined trends in firearm deaths since 1990. They found gun deaths began to steadily increase in 2005. But the rise accelerated recently with a 20% jump from 2019 to 2021. The researchers counted more than 1.1 million gun deaths over those 32 years.
The U.S. is saturated with guns and has become a lot more so over the past couple of decades, as deaths mount from gun related violence in the U.S., so do the sales of firearms. Data from 2020 shows how gun production has increased nearly threefold over the past 20 years, rising from the manufacturer of 3.9 million guns in 2000 to more than 11 point 3 million in 2020.
In addition, powerful lobbying groups, including the National Rifle Association, the NRA, spent nearly $5 million last year to expand gun rights while limiting curbs on who can have firearms and how they can be carried.
Also, gun owners have become less likely to cite hunting or sport as a reason for their ownership, instead, pointing to personal security. And despite widespread and vocal public outrage, American support for stricter gun laws in 2020 fell to the lowest level since 2014.
