Gun violence now the leading cause of death of children in America, as mass shooting rate soars in 2024

Gun violence is the leading cause of death of children in America.[1]

Last month, US Vice-President Kamala Harris issued a statement on the anniversary of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which took the lives of 19 children and two teachers on May 24, 2022. In her statement, Harris recognized?the families in Uvalde that “have channeled their anguish into advocacy – demanding accountability, justice, and action to change the unacceptable fact that gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in our nation.”[2]

The Biden Administration supports strengthening the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which among other measures?extended?background checks?for firearm purchasers under the age of 21.

Public mass shooting, according to the US Congressional Research Service, are incidents occurring in relatively public places, involving four or more deaths—not including the shooter(s)—and gunmen who select victims somewhat indiscriminately.[3]

The definition is not without its limitations. In California this past week, six people were found murdered by gun shots in the desert in San Bernardino County east of Los Angeles. Five men were arrested and are being held without bail on suspicion of the murders. An official told the press there is a large, illegally grown marijuana problem in the area.[4]?

Mass murder related to suspected criminal activity occurring in a remote desert does not qualify as a public “mass shooting” in America, even when guns are involved.

Some American political candidates dismiss concerns over mass shootings.

Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona in the 2024 election, posted a defiant pro-guns message just days after a deadly school shooting in 2023, telling a gun control activist to "come and take it."

Lake posted her taunt on social media three days after the shooting of six people—three nine-year-old children and three members of staff—at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, in March 2023.

Lake is campaigning for the US Senate on a platform of protecting the US Constitution's Second Amendment rights and vows if elected to defy federal laws on gun ownership. She opposes red flag laws—a process which allows people to ask a civil court to temporarily remove a person's firearm if they are thought to pose a risk to the public—as well as magazine capacity limits and gun free zones, such as those in place in some schools and airports.[5]

Lake is sometimes mentioned as a possible vice-presidential running mate to Donald Trump, the former president of the United States. She does not recognize the validity of the 2020 presidential election.

American Leadership Review looked up the number of mass shooting that have taken place in the US since January 1, 2024, to gauge recent trends in mass shootings in America.

As of January 31, a total of 95 people have been killed and 123 people have been wounded in 46 mass shootings.[6]

That comes to one-and-a-half mass shootings a day.

In 2023, a total 754 people died in mass shootings in America, according to Wikipedia’s conservative count. The current pace set in January 2024, if continued, would exceed 2023’s figure by more than 40%.

About?four-in-ten U.S. adults say they live in a household with a gun. Nearly half (49%) of American adults survey by the Pew Research Center in 2023 said owning a gun does more to increase safety by allowing law-abiding citizens to protect themselves. An equal share (49%) say gun ownership does more to?reduce?safety by giving too many people access to firearms and increasing misuse.[7]

In 2021, 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That figure includes gun murders, gun suicides, accidents, deaths that involved law enforcement, and those whose circumstances could not be determined.

To put this figure into perspective, between June 8, 1956, and May 28, 2006, 8,220 U.S. military died in the Vietnam War.[8]

America suffers a Vietnam War-scale tragedy every year from domestic guns violence.

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[1] Darreonna Davis (October 5, 2023). Firearms Now No. 1 Cause Of Death For U.S. Children — While Drug Poisoning Enters Top 5. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/darreonnadavis/2023/10/05/firearms-now-no-1-cause-of-death-for-us-children---while-drug-poisoning-enters-top-5/

[2] The White House (January 18 2024). Statement from Vice President Kamala?Harris on Today’s Justice Department Report on the Uvalde School Shooting?Response. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/18/statement-from-vice-president-kamala-harris-on-todays-justice-department-report-on-the-uvalde-school-shooting-response/

[3] Congressional Research Service (April 16, 2013) Public Mass Shootings in the United States: Selected Implications for Federal Public Health and Safety Policy Updated. ?

[4] Alex Stone?and?Riley Hoffman (January 30, 2024). 5 arrested in deaths of 6 found murdered in desert: Sheriff. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-announced-arrests-6-people-found-murdered-california/story?id=106658396

[5] Newsweek (March 30, 2023). Kari Lake Posts Defiant 'Come and Take It' Gun Message Days After Shooting. https://www.newsweek.com/kari-lake-posts-gun-message-nashville-shooting-1791387

[6] Wikipedia. List of mass shootings in the United States in 2024. Accessed on February 1, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2024

[7] Pew Research Center (September 13, 2023). Key facts about Americans and guns, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/

[8] National Archives. Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics. https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, Surprise, AZ (2021).