Firearms Were Leading Cause of Death for U.S. Children and Teens in 2020

Guns became the leading cause of death among children and teens in 2020, killing more people ages 1 to 19 in the U.S. than vehicle crashes, drugs overdoses or cancer. More than 4,300 died of firearm-related injuries that year — a 29 percent increase from 2019 — according to a research letter published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The letter analyzed decades of mortality data from the CDC. The research letter said, "We continue to fail to protect our youth from a preventable cause of death."