A report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions analyzed firearm death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that more than 48,000 people across the United States died from gun violence in 2022. Of those deaths, more than 2,500 were children (ages 1 to 9) and teens (ages 10 to 17) who died from a gun — an average of seven deaths every day.
That year, the report found that firearms caused 30 percent of all deaths among youth ages 15 to 17. Firearms were also the leading cause of death among children and teens, causing more deaths than car accidents, overdoses or cancer, according to the report. Notably, this year’s data distinguishes youth ages 18 and 19 from “emerging adults” because some states allow 18-year-olds to legally purchase certain firearms.
“Since 2013, the firearm death rate among children and teens (1-17) has increased 106 percent,” according to a report by the Johns Hopkins Center on Gun Violence Solutions. The report found that while the firearm homicide rate declined 7.5 percent in 2022, 19,651 people were killed by a firearm that year — the second-highest number of firearm homicide deaths on record.
The report also highlights how gun violence disproportionately affects Black and Latino/Hispanic youth. In 2022, Black children and teens experienced a firearm homicide rate nearly 18 times higher than white children and teens. That year, the firearm homicide rate among Hispanic/Latino children and teens was three times higher than the firearm homicide rate among white children and teens.
While gun suicide rates among white youth have historically been higher than youth of other races and ethnic groups, the report notes that these numbers are beginning to shift. Although gun suicides were higher among older white teens than older black teens and emerging adults (ages 15-19) in 2022, gun suicide rates among older black teens and emerging adults doubled and Hispanics/Latinas in the same age group doubled from 2013 to 2022.
Gun violence was responsible for 55 percent of deaths among older Black teens ages 15 to 17 in 2022, while American Indians/Alaska Natives were five times more likely to die from gun homicide than whites in the same age group.
The report comes amid a push among Democrats for tighter gun legislation and a contentious presidential race in 2024. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, have offered starkly different approaches to gun control. Trump has aligned himself closely with the National Rifle Association and pledged to expand gun rights. Meanwhile, Harris, herself a gun owner, has backed stricter gun restrictions, including a ban on assault weapons and universal background checks.
Recent months have seen a tragic shooting at a Georgia high school that killed four people, and a second assassination attempt on former President Trump in two months, according to the FBI.
In its report, the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions stated that “the Center’s mission is to provide policymakers and the public with accurate, up-to-date data on firearm deaths and to illustrate the enormous toll that gun violence takes on our country.”
