Child and Teen Gun Injuries Three Times More Children and Teens Injured by Guns in 2010 than the Number of U.S. Soldiers Wounded in Action that Year in the War in Afghanistan. 18,000 Number of Injuries
16,000
15,576
14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 5,247
6,000 4,000 2,000 0 Children and Teens Injured by Guns in 2010
U.S. Military Wounded in Action in Afghanistan in 2010
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Non Fatal Injury Reports. Accessed through the Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS); U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System, accessed at https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/pages/casualties.xhtml.
Children of color continue to be disproportionately affected by gun violence, with Black children and teens most at risk for being injured by a gun. n
In 2010, an estimated 7,232 Black, 3,571 Hispanic, and 2,839 White children and teens were injured by guns.***
n
The rate of gun injuries increased slightly for children and teens in all race and ethnic groups between 2009 and 2010.
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In 2010, 46 percent of gun injuries were among Black, 23 percent among Hispanic, and 18 percent among White children and teens.
n
Slightly more than half of assault gun injuries occurred in Black, and over a quarter were in Hispanic children and teens. Nearly all self-inflicted gun injuries were in White children and teens, as were over half of all accidental injuries.
n
Black children and teens were eight-and-a-half times more likely than their White peers and two-and-a-half times more likely than their Hispanic peers to be injured by a gun. Hispanic children and teens were over three times more likely to be injured by a gun than their White peers.
n
A Black was nearly 32 times more likely to be injured by a gun during an assault than a White, and two-and-a-half times more likely than a Hispanic child or teen.
* ** Another 1,584 children and teens whose race and ethnicity was “not stated” and another 349 whose race and ethnicity was categorized as “other non-Hispanic” were also estimated to be injured by guns.
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Children’s Defense Fund