WASHINGTON: Gun-related deaths among children and teens in the United States surged by 50 per cent in two years, according to a Pew Research Centre analysis released this week.
Before the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in 2019, the number of gun-related deaths among American children and adolescents younger than 18 years old was 1,732, it said.
But by 2021, this number had risen significantly to 2,590.
"The gun death rate among children and teens rose from 2.4 fatalities per 100,000 minor residents in 2019 to 3.5 per 100,000 two years later, a 46 per cent increase," Anadolu Agency cited the analysis.
The Pew Research Centre conducted the analysis in the wake of a fatal school shooting March 27 in Nashville, Tennessee which killed six people, including three children.
The number and rate of children and teens killed by gunfire in 2021 were higher than at any point since at least 1999, said the centre.
The Pew Research Centre analysed the latest annual mortality statistics from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
