The Devastating Impact of Gun Violence on Young People in the US

Gun violence has overtaken motor vehicle accidents as a leading killer of young people in the US—second only to drug overdoses, says the Center for American Progress.

Between January and April this year alone, 820 youths aged 12-17 were killed or injured with a gun. Young Americans are now especially at risk from firearms—whether as victims of homicides, police shooting, or suicides.

The figures were contained in a report entitled “America’s Youth Under Fire,” released jointly by the Center of American Progress, a non-partisan Washington DC think tank, which advocates for a number of progressive-linked causes including gun safety, and Generation Progress, an advocacy group.