#schoolshootings Gun violence is the leading cause of child deaths in the United States

When I worked as a counselor for children exposed to violence in my home state of North Carolina, there’s one phrase I heard again and again: “this is the way it is.”

It was at a time when young people were becoming accustomed to hearing gunshots, listening to news reports of shootings in their city, and seeing guns within their homes and were accepting this behavior as if it was the norm.

Unfortunately for victims of gun violence, that refrain is all too familiar. Gun violence may affect everyone differently, but child after child who I met said they were “feeling numb” to the violence they witnessed. In many ways they were taking their cues from the adults in their lives, from all of us, who seemingly have grown accustomed to the unacceptable gun violence all around us.

Guns Are Leading Cause of Death Among Children

While 2024 has just began, gun violence has already claimed over 10,000 lives this year – and it’s just the start of August. The U.S. has already experienced 39 mass shootings this year. Most recently, a school shooting in Des Moines in January claimed the lives of two teenagers.

In fact, firearms are the leading cause of deathamong children and teens. While gun violence is not limited to any one zip code – it’s true that some children witness and experience more gun violence, especially those growing up in underinvested, metropolitan communities. In fact, children of color are impacted gun homicides at higher rates than white children. As a result of discriminatory policy decisions to segregate and underinvest in historically redlined communities, Black and Hispanic communities of color bear the unfair, unnecessary, unimaginable, and unspeakable pain and grief of losing family members due to everyday gun violence.

The reality is that not only are we losing our children to senseless gun violence but the trauma and exposure to witnessing violence within their environment can have a lasting impact. Children who witness gun violence can experience a variety of mental and behavioral health concerns including anxiety, depression, isolation and post-traumatic stress disorder. They are also more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, perform poorly in school and resort to aggressive or violent behavior.

Of course it’s not just children who experience trauma. Several families I knew in my practice felt the crushing blow of learning their children were murdered. While not all stories are the same, it is safe to say that families who have suffered the pain of losing their child to gun violence have had to implement what one survivor mentioned to me during a session and that is “learn to breathe again… just take one breath at a time” or else the grief and pain will become overwhelming.