Study charts ‘epidemic’ of gun deaths of children

Calling it an “epidemic,” scientists announced an alarming increase in the number of firearm deaths of schoolage children in the USA: 38,942 in those 5 to 18 years old from 1999 to 2017, according to a study released Thursday.

“It is sobering that in 2017, there were 144 police officers who died in the line of duty and about 1,000 active-duty military throughout the world who died, whereas 2,462 school-age children were killed by firearms,” said Charles Hennekens, the study’s lead author from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine.

He called the epidemic a major clinical, public health and policy challenge, noting that the rate of death in the USA is about six to nine times higher than in other developed nations.

The study landed on the same day New Zealand announced it was banning all assault rifles, high-capacity magazines and military-style semiautomatic rifles in response to the nation’s deadliest massacre last week. Gun violence has also been in the spotlight in the USA after a string of highprofile mass shootings in the past year.

According to the study, of the nearly 39,000 deaths, there were 6,464 deaths in children ages 5 to 14 (average of 340 deaths per year), and 32,478 deaths in children ages 15 to 18 (average of 2,050 deaths per year).

The cause of deaths in school-age children was 61 percent from assault; 32 percent suicide; 5 percent accidental; and 2 percent undetermined, the study says.

Blacks accounted for 41 percent of overall deaths, and 86 percent of all deaths were boys.

Data in the study came from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.