Suicide is often included as a cause of death to intentionally distort this statistic:
> From 2019 to 2020, the relative increase in the rate of firearm-related deaths of all types (_suicide_, homicide, unintentional, and undetermined) among children and adolescents was 29.5%
If you control for this, and include rates of homicide using other means of destruction (i.e., explosives or knives), it starts to look a lot more even compared to other OECD countries (albeit still above average).
I wouldn't consider that distortion. Its a significant problem that firearms are highly successful suicide on the first impulse. Children who try another means are much more likely to have a chance to contemplate if they really want to kill themselves.
I'm calling it a distortion, because it's often used as a dishonest portrayal of how prevalent gun violence is in the US. Usually by the media, who wants attention grabbing headlines, and don't really care how the numbers are manipulated to peddle to their readers' selection bias.
It's US government agencies that call death by suicide a form of violence, and that's the reason that death by suicide involving a gun is a form of gun violence.
This is despite all the weird laws in the US against collecting, analysing, and reporting statistics.
Shouldn't that number be concerning 30% of children deaths are from guns?
Suicide or not, doesn't that seem concerning? Hmm... Some people say it's the top way children die now by gun.
I remember growing up and having active shooter drills in elementary school but it's nothing like they are now. I think we are one of the few countries where children dieing by firearm has increased 46% in the last twenty years or so.
Where I grew up it wasn't rare to hear about stabbings or shooting but it does put me on edge hearing about a mall I used to go to having an active shooter etc.
It is concerning. But not for the reasons the media makes it out to be.
Only 0.18% of all gun homicides were committed during a mass shooting. https://www.maciverinstitute.com/2022/05/debunking-every-maj.... The chances of you being killed in a shooting are less than being struck by lightning. If you don't plan on joining a gang, frequenting a bad part of Baltimore or St. Louis, or committing suicide, it becomes orders of magnitude less likely, to the point where you're no less safe in the USA than any other country.
"Gun violence is the leading cause of death between 1 and 19 years of age" So why did the study chose such a specific age range?
Cut it off at 18 and it wouldn't work, since it would exclude gang violence. Start it at birth and it also wouldn't work, since the statistic would include infant mortality. Unfortunately, that would debunk the fact that gun violence is a widespread problem in the US, rather than something that's happening exclusively in a few poorly run municipalities with excessive levels of poverty, violence, and organized crime.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2201761