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Children & Teens

Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens (ages 1 to 19) in the United States.[mfn]Centers for for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death, Injury Mechanism & All Other Leading Causes, (accessed September 1, 2024), https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/saved/D176/D405F541. Data from 2023. Ages: 1–19.[/mfn] Every year, nearly 22,000 children and teens are shot and killed or wounded[mfn]Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death (accessed September 1, 2024), 2019–2023, and Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) nonfatal firearm injury data, 2020. Ages: 0–19.[/mfn] and approximately 3 million are exposed to gun violence.[mfn]David Finkelhor et al., “Prevalence of Childhood Exposure to Violence, Crime, and Abuse: Results from the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence,” JAMA Pediatrics 169, no. 8 (August 2015): 746-54, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.0676. Everytown’s analysis derives the 3 million number by multiplying the share of children (ages 0 to 17) who are exposed to shootings per year (4 percent) by the total child population of the US in 2016 (~73.5 million).[/mfn]

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