Gun Report Reveals 2,827 Child and Teen Deaths by Firearms in One Year
Children's Defense Fund
The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) releases its report on gun violence against children, Protect Children, Not Guns, at a time when major U.S. cities are calling for strategies to combat illegal firearms.
Citing the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the report reveals that 2,827 children and teens died as a result of gun violence in 2003---more than the number of American fighting men and women killed in hostile action in Iraq from 2003 to April 2006.
"Just as gruesome as incoming casualties from a battlefield, the bodies of young gunshot victims stream into urban hospital trauma centers on the frontlines of an undeclared war on America's children," said Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund.
"The deaths of thousands of children each year is morally obscene for the world's most powerful nation, which has more resources to address its social ills than any other nation," said Mrs. Edelman.
The Protect Children, Not Guns report comes as many U.S. mayors also are recognizing the toll that gun violence is taking on our country and are seeking solutions.
At a recently convened mayoral summit, that was co-sponsored by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, fifteen Mayors from across the country called for national leadership in the war on gun violence.
More 10- to 19-year-olds die from gunshot wounds than from any other cause except motor vehicle accidents.
