Overview 5,740 Children and Teens were Killed by Guns in 2008 and 2009 Protect Children, Not Guns 2012 analyzes the latest fatal and nonfatal firearm injury data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2008 and 2009 for children and teens ages 0-19.1
Gun Deaths In 2008, 2,947 children and teens died from guns in the United States and 2,793 died in 2009 for a total of 5,740—one child or teen every three hours, eight every day, 55 every week for two years. n
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The 5,740 children and teens killed by guns in 2008 and 2009: • Would fill more than 229 public school classrooms of 25 students each; • Was greater than the number of U.S. military personnel killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan (5,013).2 The number of preschoolers killed by guns in 2008 (88) and in 2009 (85) was nearly double the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in 2008 (41) and 2009 (48). Black children and teens accounted for 45 percent of all child and teen gun deaths in 2008 and 2009 but were only 15 percent of the total child population. Black males 15-19 were eight times as likely as White males of the same age and two-and-a-half times as likely as their Hispanic peers to be killed in a gun homicide in 2009. The leading cause of death among Black teens ages 15 to 19 in 2008 and 2009 was gun homicide. For White teens 15 to 19 it was motor vehicle accidents followed by gun homicide in 2008 and gun suicide in 2009. The most recent analysis of data from 23 industrialized nations shows that 87 percent of the children under age 15 killed by guns in these nations lived in the United States. The gun homicide rate in the United States for teens and young adults ages 15 to 24 was 42.7 times higher than the combined rate for the other nations. Of the 116,385 children and teens killed by a gun since 1979, when gun data by age were first collected, 44,038 were Black—nearly 13 times more than the number of recorded lynchings of Black people of all ages in the 86 years from 1882 to 1968. Even so, more White than Black children and teens have died from gun violence. 2009
2008 2,947 2,037 748 162
total firearm fatalities homicide suicide accidental or undetermined
2,793 1,855 800 138
total firearm fatalities homicide suicide accidental or undetermined
2,577 370
boys girls
2,434 359
boys girls
2,571 408 148 88
between ages 15-19 under age 15 under age 10 under age 5
2,439 354 151 85
between ages15-19 under age 15 under age 10 under age 5
1,488 1,371 563 46 42
White Black Hispanic* American Indian or Alaska Native Asian or Pacific Islander
1,515 1,211 566 40 27
White Black Hispanic* American Indian or Alaska Native Asian or Pacific Islander
* Persons of Hispanic origin can be of any race; the 563 deaths in 2008 and the 566 deaths in 2009 are included in the four race categories. 2
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Children’s Defense Fund