Gun Violence Killing Kids: What VA Is Doing About It

VIRGINIA — More American kids lost their lives to gun violence in 2020 than in any year before as firearms-related deaths eclipsed motor vehicle fatalities for children 1-19, putting the United States in a class of its own among wealthy, similarly sized countries, according to a pair of reports.

Virginia was among the states with more fatalities, seeing a double-digit increase in firearms deaths in 2020.

Most of the more than 4,350 U.S. children and young adults in that age group who died in firearms violence in 2020 — a stunning 30 percent increase from 2019 — weren’t killed in mass shootings.

Rather, research shows, most were killed in homes and neighborhoods in incidents that didn’t get the attention of the mass shootings. A firearms death is considered one that results from homicide, suicide or accidental death.

In 2020, for example, a Virginia teen died and a 3-year-old toddler was injured following a shooting at an apartment building, NBC 12 reported. It's not clear if the shooter was ever caught or what the motive may have been.

The young 2020 victims, in many cases, were also kids killed by other kids in street violence, as Joliet Patch reported. They were kids like Caleb Reed, 17, of Chicago, an activist who worked to stem teen gun violence before he was accidentally shot and killed by his friend. Police said the friend was shooting at a passing car as they walked down a street, Evanston Patch previously reported.

They were kids like the 12-year-old son of Brad Hunstable, who died by suicide. His father lamented to The New Yorker that parents “can’t fathom and don’t want to fathom their kids doing it, so they underinvest in making sure it doesn’t happen.” Additionally, he said, pediatricians don’t know how to screen for suicidal ideation as they do, for example, lead poisoning.

Less often, they’re kids like a 2-year-old Pennsylvania boy who found his father’s loaded gun and accidentally shot himself in the head, Levittown Patch reported.

Gun Deaths Up In Virginia

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t break out firearms mortality among children by state. Overall, Virginia saw a 14.5 percent increase in firearms deaths in 2020 versus 2019, the data shows.

In 2020, there were 1,174 gun deaths in Virginia compared to 1,025 in 2019, according to the CDC.

An analysis of that data by University of Michigan researchers showed firearm-related deaths among children ages 1-19 increased by 30 percent from 2019 to 2020, compared with a 13.5 percent increase in the older group during the same time period.

Overall, researchers who analyzed the CDC data said, the increase in child firearms deaths was driven by a 33.4 percent increase in firearms homicides, which disproportionately affect young people.

Of particular note, the percentages of people who died by suicide and violent assault are almost evenly flipped in comparisons between children and adults.

Most of the 2020 firearms deaths among children (65 percent) were due to violent assault, but 30 percent of them were ruled suicides.

Among adults, 55 percent of adult firearm deaths in 2020 were ruled suicides, compared to 30 percent that resulted from violent assaults.

U.S. Stands Alone

Firearm deaths among children aren’t a uniquely American problem, but the United States far outpaces other similarly large wealthy countries in this category, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Kaiser’s research shows firearms are the 15th leading cause of death among children in the United Kingdom and Japan. It ranks 13th in the Netherlands and Germany; 11th in Australia; ninth in Sweden, Austria and Belgium; eighth in France; sixth in Switzerland; and fifth in Canada.

The United States accounts for 97 percent of gun-related child deaths among the 12 nations, despite having only 45 percent of the population of the cluster, according to Kaiser.

Notably, the other 11 countries combined accounted for only 153 of the 4,510 firearms deaths in children ages 1-19; in other words, 4,357 of these deaths occurred in the United States.

2020 Gun Sales Set Record

One reason for the increase in firearms deaths: easy access to guns, researchers say.

Americans bought 23 million guns in 2020, a 64 percent increase over 2019 sales that shattered previous records, The Washington Post reported in an analysis of federal data on gun check backgrounds. About a fifth of 2020 gun purchases were by first-time gun buyers, according to the analysis.

The analysis also shows that many states that saw an increase in gun deaths also saw an increase in gun sales.

That kids die in gun violence is no longer unthinkable, but the politicization of guns has taken priority over public health, Drs. Eric W. Fleegar and Lois K. Lee, researchers and emergency room pediatricians who study firearms injuries, wrote in Scientific American.

A Reckoning Point?

No one knows exactly how many guns there are in the United States because states don’t track gun sales or require registration, but estimates are around 400 million.

Fleegar and Lee pointed out that 20 years ago, a majority of gun owners used the firearms for hunting and sports, but now 88 percent say they have them for self-protection, and 40 percent of them keep an “easily accessible” loaded gun at all times.

Related In This Series:

• Yearly Gun Deaths Are Up In Virginia
• Bipartisan Gun Violence Bill: What Passage Will Mean In Virginia
• National Gun Violence Awareness Day Rally Planned In Alexandria
• Sen. Tim Kaine Visits VA High School To Address Gun Violence

Their research and analysis of federal data shows that last year, 30 million U.S. children lived in households with at least one gun. In households with children, 73 percent of guns were stored unlocked and/or loaded, putting children at risk of accidentally shooting themselves or others.

“If you keep a gun in your home, storing it unloaded and keeping the gun and ammunition locked away separately can decrease the risk,” they wrote.

From 2015-2021, there were 2,446 unintentional child shootings, resulting in 923 deaths and 1,603 injuries, the researchers said.

They also pointed out that although cars and virtually every other product sold in the United States are subject to safety regulations under the Consumer Product Safety Act, firearms are exempt.

In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly adopted the Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence Act, which includes provisions to close current background check loopholes, mandate reporting of lost and stolen firearms, prevent children from accessing firearms, and implement a one-handgun-a-month policy.

That same year, former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed an "extreme risk protective order," also known as a "red flag" law, which allows for the temporary removal of firearms from people deemed to be at high risk of harming themselves or others. Virginia joined 19 other states and Washington, D.C., in having passed some type of "red flag" law.

The Virginia General Assembly also gave localities the authority to ban guns inside their facilities and parks, which many localities in Northern Virginia implemented.

In June, Virginia's senators voted for a bipartisan gun violence bill that has now been approved by the House of Representatives and is headed to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act will strengthen background checks for the youngest firearms buyers, expand the definition of a gun seller and impose new penalties on gun traffickers. It could also give Virginia and its communities a share of $15 billion to improve school safety and fund mental health initiatives.

Gun Violence In America

The common denominator in gun violence is that it happens in towns and neighborhoods across the country to people we know. It touches our communities in multiple ways, from children who pick up their parents’ handguns and accidentally shoot themselves to adolescents who end their lives with handguns to mass shootings. In this reporting project, Patch explores those and other ways gun violence impacts our lives, and what is being done to make our communities safer.

Do you have a story idea for this series? Email beth.dalbey@patch.com.