Shootings involving minors in the US have been on the rise in recent years, and the coronavirus pandemic has made the situation worse with gun sales and people doing nothing, AP reported Tuesday.
In 2019, 991 people under the age of 18 were killed by gun violence in the United States, the report said, citing data from the Gun Violence Archive website. The website cites more than 7,500 sources, including law enforcement officials, media reports and government or commercial agencies. In 2020, 1,375 people in the same age group died from gun violence in the United States. As of October 11 this year, the number was 1,179, with 3,292 minors injured as a result of gun violence.
According to a report released by the FEDERAL Bureau of Investigation on September 28, the number of homicides in the United States increased by nearly 30 percent last year, and those under the age of 20 increased by more than 21 percent.
【 Horror Stories 】
American minors caught in gun violence have been shot by stray bullets while playing or pulled out after a word of disagreement. In the words of the Associated Press, "horror stories" abound.
Two children were killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May: Triniti Ottonson-Smith, a 9-year-old girl who was shot in the head by a stray bullet while jumping on a trampoline. Six-year-old Ania Allen was driving by with her mother when she was shot.
In addition to children, many of the shooting victims are teenagers. 15-year-old Jamari Williams and Kentrell McNeil, who attended the same Chicago high school, were killed in two separate, unrelated shootings on September 21. Police declined to speculate on the cause of the shooting and no arrests have been made.
Five students were killed and several others wounded in a shooting last school year at a Philadelphia high school. Two more students and a recent graduate were killed by gun violence at the same school early in the new school year.
【 Violence 】
A report released in March by the Children's Defense Fund said the number of U.S. children and teens killed in gun incidents hit a 19-year high in 2017, and has continued to increase since then. The report says black children and teenagers are four times more likely than their white peers to die in a gun incident.
Some studies have shown that among underage victims of gun violence, younger children are often accidentally shot, but teenagers are more often targeted, and many of the perpetrators are also teenagers.