For every U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan during 11 years of war, at least 13 children were shot and killed in America.More than 450 kids didn’t make it to kindergarten.
Another 2,700 or more were killed by a firearm before they could sit behind the wheel of a car.
Every day, on average, seven children were shot dead.
An investigation of child and youth deaths in America between 2002
and 2012 found that at least 28,000 children and teens 19-years-old and
younger were killed with guns. Teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19
made up over two-thirds of all youth gun deaths in America.
The findings are compiled in the most complete database to date from
records obtained from 49 state health departments and FBI Supplementary
Homicide Reports.
“It’s an unacceptable number and it should be
regardless of where you stand on gun-owning ideology,” said Colette
Martin, a member of Parents Against Gun Violence. “The numbers are that
high and we are as a country ignoring them.”
Most of those
killed by firearms, 62 percent, were murdered and the majority of
victims were black children and teens. Suicides resulted in 25 percent
of the firearm deaths of young people: The majority of them were white.
More than 1,100 children and teens were killed by a gun that
accidentally discharged.
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