USA-BBC: Gun deaths topped the list of causes of child deaths in 2020

Weapons surpassed traffic as the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in the US in 2020, according to a new study published by the BBC.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 4,300 young Americans have died from gunshot wounds in 2020.

While suicides are included in this report, the evidence shows that homicides have caused the majority of gun-related deaths.

More than 390 million guns belong to American citizens.

According to the study, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the increase in gun-related deaths among Americans between the ages of one and 19 is part of the overall 33.4% increase in gun-related homicides nationwide. level.

Over the same period, the U.S. gun suicide rate rose 1.1 percent.

The overall rate of gun-related deaths for various reasons – suicides, homicides, involuntary homicides or unexplained – among children and adolescents increased by 29.5%.

In recent years, gun-related deaths have been the second leading cause of death among young Americans, with traffic being the number one cause of death.

Traffic, however, decreased over the year and in 2020 about 3,900 Americans under the age of 19 lost their lives in traffic.

Cases of overdose and drug poisoning increased by 83.6% from 2019 to 2020 and today is the third leading cause of death in this age group.

Another study published earlier in April found that 954 young people died from overdose in 2020 compared to 492 in 2019.

Gun violence in the United States has increased since the beginning of 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic began.

A separate study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in February, found that 7.5 million adults in the United States – less than 3% of the population – acquired a firearm for the first time during a pandemic. from January to April 2021.

Source: AMPE

Source: Capital

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