An ‘epidemic’ of gun-related deaths in children over the past decade

Mortality rates due to firearms are increasing at an alarming rate among teenagers and African-American children, according to a new report. Researchers looked at nearly 40,000 deaths between 1999 and 2017 and found that about 20 percent of all deaths in children ages 15-18 was due to firearms  — a total of 32,000 teenagers. The study also found that nearly 41 percent of all deaths were in African-American children, 86 percent of all deaths were boys, and most were homicides. “This increasing epidemic poses increasing clinical, public health, and policy challenges,” the authors write.