The rising number of deaths of children due to firearm accidents are a statistic that is only visible in the US with thousands of children dead every year. (Image: Shutterstock)
The police have not charged anyone yet but are questioning an adult who was present at home. At least 1,114 children have died in incidents related to firearms.
A nine-year-old boy fatally shot a 6-year-old boy in the head this week after he got hold of a gun in Florida’s Jacksonville, news agency CNN reported.
The child succumbed to his injuries shortly after being taken to the hospital. JD Stronko, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Assistant Chief, told news outlets that an adult was present at home when the shooting happened.
Stronko said that the adult has been questioned by authorities. Stronko said there is no indication of criminal violence and no one has been charged with a crime. He, however, said circumstances of the shooting are being probed.
The police officials told CNN that it remains unclear what the relationship between the two boys and their relationship with the adult are. Due to Marsy’s Law, which seeks to give crime victims meaningful and enforceable constitutional rights equal to the rights of the accused, authorities will not release the information. At least 17 states in the United States have such laws.
“One of the juveniles was able to obtain a firearm and fired a single shot striking the victim. There is no indication of criminal violence,” Stronko was quoted as saying by the Florida Times-Union newspaper.
After Wednesday’s shooting, at least 1,114 children up to the age of 17 years have been killed in 2023 in the United States in gun violence, according to the Gun Violence Archive. At least 3,065 children have been injured so far in gun violence this year, the not-for-profit organisation’s data showed.
A grim statistic shows that children and teens are more likely to die by guns than any other way as evidenced by cases recorded in 2020, CNN said in its report.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention WONDER database shows that 19% of deaths in 2021 of children ages 1 to 18 were caused due to firearms.
At least 3,600 children died in gun-related incidents in 2020 which means about 5 children out of 100,000 child deaths in the US happened due to gun-related incidents.
Not-for-profit group the KFF told CNN that in no other comparable country firearms are among the top four causes of mortality among children.
