A study on the year 2020, in the United States, has 4,368 children and adolescents (up to 19 years) who died of injuries caused by a firearm, a rate of 5.4 per 100,000 people.
Le Monde with AFP
Weapons have become the main cause of death in young Americans, surpassing road accidents, according to a recent study of diseases of prevention and fight against diseases (CDC). This reflects a sharp increase in ball homicides in the United States, like the killing in a Texas school which killed 19 schoolchildren on Tuesday May 24.
4,036 deaths were attributed to road accidents among young Americans under 19, as a comparison, 332 more dead were caused by a firearm. The homicides count for almost two-thirds of these deaths.
The gap has gradually reduced with the decline in traffic accidents due to measures to improve road safety over the years, while deaths by firearms increased. The two curves crossed in 2020, the latest statistics available, and the results were analyzed in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine last week. 2> not all equal in the face of firearms
The CDC table shows that almost 30 % of deaths were suicides, just over 3 % of accidental deaths and causes being indefinite for 2 % of cases. A small number of them is described as “legal intervention”, that is to say deaths that occurred during interactions with the police.
Young African Americans are victims of firearms in a disproportionate way, with four times more likely to die by ball than young white people, for whom road accidents represent a greater threat. The second most affected group is that of the Amerindians.
Men are also six times more likely to die because of a firearm than women. Geographically, the rate of death by firearm is the most important in the American capital Washington, followed by Louisiana and Alaska.
These figures emphasize that if the mass killings like that of Uvalde in Texas provoke dread in public opinion, they represent only a small part of the death deaths among young people.