Guns kill about 10 times more black children than they do white children each year, according to a new analysis.
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, published in the journal Pediatrics, analyzed the number of gun-related homicides, suicides, and unintentional deaths and injuries among U.S. children from 2002 to 2014. Researchers looked at hospital reports and death certificates, as well as overall patterns and trends.
Black children faced the highest rates of gun-related homicides, at 3.5 for every 100,000, researchers found. That’s nearly 10 times the rate for white children, at .4 for 100,000. In many cases, researchers noted, gun-related deaths occur “in multi-victim events and involved intimate partner or family conflict.”
Gun-related deaths also disproportionately affected young boys and older children. Researchers found that gun-related deaths, injuries and homicides are higher among boys ages 13 to 17 than teen girls and younger boys.
Preventing these injuries and ensuring safe relationships and environments for all children is one of the CDC’s “most important priorities,” wrote Dr. Katherine Fowler, behavioral scientist at the CDC and the report’s lead author in an email to TIME.
“[This study] reinforces the importance of addressing the intersection of the various forms of violence, and draws attention to the range of firearm injuries and deaths impacting children,” wrote Fowler. “These are preventable injuries that have a major public health impact on early death and disability among children.”
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