Myth: 13 children are killed each day by guns

Fact: Adults included – This “statistic” includes “children” up to age 19 or 24, depending on the source. Most violent crime is committed by males ages 16-24, and this myth includes these young adults — many of whom are gang members who die during criminal activity¹. Incidentally, a ‘child’ is defined as a person between birth and puberty (typically 13-14 years old).

Fact: Criminals are included - 70% of these deaths are juveniles or adults, ages 17 to 20, during gang warfare. Half of the juveniles killed are involved in gang activity at the time of their deaths, which are very often drug trafficking related firefights.

Fact: Suicides and criminals included - These numbers include criminal activities and suicides.² As suicides make up more than 1⁄2 of all gun deaths, the number children killed could drop even further, to about 1.3 a day. ³

Fact: The federal government lists the total firearm related deaths for children were 612, or 1.7 per day, in 1998. 154 were suicides⁴

Fact: Over 13 teenagers die every day in automobiles, seven behind the wheel.⁵

Fact: Four children die each day in the U.S. from parental neglect and abuse.⁶

Fact: For contrast: 1,917 children die each day from malaria⁷ around the world and 15 men, women, and children per day are murdered by a convicted felon in government supervised

This is an excerpt from “Gun Facts” by Guy Smith, available free from http://www.gunfacts.info