The study, conducted by Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine, reviewed data obtained by the National Center for Health Statistics (NHCS). Between 1999 and 2017, the data revealed that 38,940 children between the ages of 5 and 18 were killed by firearms.
By contrast, the total number Americans killed in the Vietnam War, which lasted two years longer than the period studied, was 58,220.
Of the nearly 39,000 deaths, 32% were suicides. 61% of these children were killed in an assault involving a firearm. Black children made up 41% of those gun-related deaths, and of those black children, 86% were boys. Although the circumstances of each death were not specifically examined in the study, researchers believe that many of these children are caught in the line of fire of domestic violence situations that involved guns.
In 2017, more U.S. children were gunned down than on-duty police and active duty military combined