Guns remain leading cause of death for US children and teens

A new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions underscores the continuing epidemic of gun deaths in the U.S., including among children and especially among Black youth.

The report, “Gun Violence in the United States 2022: Examining the Burden Among Children and Teens,” assessed the latest finalized data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlighting that 48,204 people, the second highest on record, died from gunshots in the U.S. in 2022, including 27,032 suicides, an all-time high for the country.

The annual report’s major focus this year is on gun deaths among children ages 1 to 17. In the U.S., gun death rates in this age group have increased by 106% since 2013 and have been the leading cause of death among this group since 2020.

The report also illuminates the disproportionate impact of gun deaths among Black children and teens. In 2022, in the 1 to 17 age group, Black children and teens had a gun death rate 18 times higher than that of white children in the same age group. The gun homicide rate among Black children and teens rose 5.6% from 2021 to 2022.

The rate of gun suicide among Black older teens and emerging adults, ages 15 to 19, rose sharply—24% year-over-year—surpassing the gun suicide rate among white teens in that age range for the first time.

“We hope this report helps policymakers grasp the scale of this crisis and the possibility of addressing it more effectively with equitable, evidence-based measures including child gun access prevention laws,” says Silvia Villarreal, lead author of the report and director of research translation at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, based at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

To address the gun violence crisis among youth, the report authors recommend extending and strengthening Child Access Prevention laws. Currently, more than half of U.S. states have laws that require secure storage of firearms in households with minors. Some jurisdictions hold firearm owners accountable when a minor’s access to a firearm results in injury or death.

The firearm fatality statistics cited in the report were derived from the CDC’s Underlying Cause of Death database, which is based on death certificates for U.S. residents, and includes unintentional shootings, shootings by police, suicides, and homicides, and is considered the most reliable countrywide source of gun death data.

The findings show that, after peaking in 2021, the overall U.S. gun violence rate fell 2.7% in 2022, representing 626 fewer deaths. The decline came from a fall in the homicide rate, which decreased 7.5% in 2022, with 1,307 fewer gun homicides. Gun suicides increased 2.7% over 2021 to 27,032, the highest level since the CDC began tracking firearm fatalities in 1968.

Other key findings:

• There were 2,526 gun deaths in 2022 among 1- to 17-year-olds, averaging to nearly 7 per day.
• Firearms accounted for nearly a third of all deaths among 15- to 17-year-olds.
• From 2013 to 2022, the rates of gun suicide among Black youth ages 10 to 17 tripled and, for Hispanic youth ages 10 to 17, more than doubled.
• Black male teens and young adults (ages 15 to 34) accounted for 34% of all gun homicides during 2022, though they represented just 2% of the total U.S. population. The gun homicide rate for this group was 24 times higher than that for white males in this age group.
• Over half—55%—of deaths among Black older teens ages 15 to 17 in 2022 were caused by guns.
• In 2022, the gun homicide rate among Black female teens and young adults ages 15 to 34 was nine times higher than that of their white female counterparts.
• Across all age groups, American Indian/Alaskan Natives were five times more likely to die by gun homicide than their white counterparts.

To help prevent gun violence, the report authors also recommend implementing firearm licensing that includes background checks and requires safety training; policies that remove firearms from those at risk of harming self or others; community violence intervention programs; more stringent permitting for open and concealed carrying of firearms; and repealing stand-your-ground laws.

“The research is clear—these policies can help reduce rates of gun violence, including the record-high rates we’re seeing among our nation’s youngest and most vulnerable,” says Cassandra Crifasi, report co-author and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.