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Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for America's children, surpassing accidents, illnesses and even drug overdoses, a report released last month found, as attention was drawn to the issue after a man killed 19 children in Uvalde, Texas, at their elementary school this week.
Researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor write that over 4,300 children ages one to 19 died from a firearm injury in the first year of the pandemic - a 30 percent increase from the previous year.
2020 was the first year that gun violence overtook vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death - due to both a rise in gun deaths and a rapid decline in vehicle-related deaths over the past two decades.
On Tuesday, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos killed 18 young children under the age of 11 along with two teachers in a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School in the West Texas town of Uvalde - another shocking example of the violence hurting America's youth.
Gun Violence Is Now the Leading Killer of America's Youth, Research Report Says, Surpassing Car Crashes (File Photo)
Researchers who published their findings found in the New England Journal of Medicine in April that there were a record 45,222 gun deaths in 2020.
Overall, there was a 13.5 percent increase in gun deaths, including a 33 percent year-over-year increase in gun-related homicides.
Jason Goldstick (pictured), a researcher at the University of Michigan, said there is no specific cause for the increase in gun violence, but it corresponds with an increase in firearm purchases
Suicides committed by the use of firearms also increased by one percent and remained about the same from year to year.
The research team writes that after seeing these statistics for the general population, they decided to determine how much of the burden of gun violence fell on the country's youth.
They found that in 2020, only about six out of every 100,000 children in the U.S. died from a fire alarm, which was more than five out of every 100,000 children who died in a car accident.
Jason Goldstick, a research associate professor at Michigan University, told DailyMail.com that there is no clear evidence pointing to a specific cause for the recent spike in violence.
But he notes that other studies have found similar results about gun violence in America, and rising crime rates across much of the country seem to indicate this.
A study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, finds that firearm purchases increased early in the pandemic, although there was no direct link between the purchases and increases in violence at the state level.
Goldstick also can't be sure where the death numbers will go from here, as they could fall back to normal levels - although there's also the possibility that this sharply elevated rate of gun violence is the new normal in America.
The shooter was identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos of Uvalde. He was described as a bullied loner who slowly dropped out of school because of his lisp, habit of eyeliner, clothing, and teasing his family's poverty
Drug overdose deaths also rose sharply, nearly doubling from 2019 to 2020, with more than two deaths per 100,000 children and surpassing asphyxia, cancer and birth defects as causes of death.
Fentanyl has been largely blamed for the rise in drug deaths. A University of California, Los Angeles study released earlier this month found that teen deaths from the synthetic opioid had tripled from 253 in 2019 to 884 in 2021.
Another shocking example of gun violence against American youth came this week when 18-year-old “loner” Ramos walked into a fourth-grade classroom after a long police chase and committed a sickening crime.
Among those shot by the callous killer yesterday was a 10-year-old girl who was calling 911 when he opened fire.
Amerie Jo Garza, a fourth-grader at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde, Texas, was killed in cold blood Tuesday morning by 18-year-old "loner" Salvador Ramos, who entered the school with a pistol and a rifle before opening fire on classrooms full of children in an attack that also killed two teachers.
Berlinda Irene Arreola, Amerie's grandmother, said Ramos told the class, "You're going to die" before he began his massacre - and shot her granddaughter as she tried to call 911. Amerie sat next to her best friend who was left behind. covered in her blood,' Berlinda told the Daily Beast.