‘An Absolute F**king Disgrace’: Record 6,036 US Kids Killed, Injured by Gunfire in 2022
This story originated on December 26, 2022, in Common Dreams. We reprint it to join others to shine a light on the national crisis of mass shootings. Our government has the responsibility of doing something about it. It can start by banning the sale of weapons of mass destruction. No more empty promises. We need action.
As of Tuesday, 306 children under age 12 were killed by guns and another 668 were injured nationwide. For those ages 12-17, 1,328 were killed and 3,734 with just a few days left until the new year, 2022 has already set a grim record: so far at least 6,036 children across the United States have been killed or injured by gunfire, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
As of Tuesday, 306 children under age 12 were killed by guns and another 668 were injured nationwide. For those ages 12-17, 1,328 were killed and 3,734 were injured.
Those figures include the 19 kids—but not the two adults—killed in the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and come just a few weeks after the nation marked the 10th anniversary of the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Launched in 2013, the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) is an online project that aims “to document incidents of gun violence and gun crime nationally to provide independent, verified data to those who need to use it in their research, advocacy, or writing.”
GVA’s annual figures for child deaths and injuries go back to 2014. As the group highlighted in a tweet Monday, this year is the first in recorded history that the overall number has topped 6,000—which Project Unloaded called “heartbreaking and preventable.”
Gun violence data for children and teenagers since 2014:
2014: 2,859
2015: 3,378
2016: 3,819
2017: 3,982
2018: 3,546
2019: 3,825
2020: 5,160
2021: 5,708
2022: 6,021 [in 360 days]
The Gun Violence Archive
@GunDeaths
FYI: As of this past weekend, there have been over 6,000 American children (age 0-11) and teenagers (age 12-17) killed or injured by gunfire in 2022.
This is the first time the United States has reached 6,000+ kids & teens shot in GVA data history.
Jacob Sumner, who is pursuing a master’s degree in public administration at Arizona State University as a Sackton fellow, tweeted of GVA’s figures that “we should not and cannot allow that to be normal. We need lifesaving commonsense gun safety measures.”
Noting ABC News’ reporting on the record, Brady PAC—a political action committee that supports candidates who champion policies to reduce gun violence—declared that “our children have the right to live.”
Another ABC reader described the development as “an absolute fucking disgrace.”
U.S. President Joe Biden—who signed some gun safety reforms into law after the Uvalde shooting—said on the Sandy Hook anniversary that “we have a moral obligation to pass and enforce laws that can prevent these things from happening again.” However, with the GOP set to take control of the U.S. House next week, progress on the issue over the next two years is unlikely.
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