For the first time, firearm-related deaths exceeded motor vehicle collisions as the leading cause of death for U.S. youth across all racial and ethnic groups in 2020, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mortality data by researchers at NIMHD.

Researchers used the CDC WONDER database to compare rates of firearm-related deaths for children and adolescents ages 1 year to 19 years across all racial and ethnic groups in 2020 and compared only Black and White youths from 1999 to 2020. The database compiles cause-of-death estimates that medical examiners list on death certificates for all U.S. counties. Firearm-related deaths include gun assaults, suicides by gun, deaths due to accidental discharge of a gun, legal intervention leading to gun death, and gun-involved deaths where the cause was unknown.

More> 

###