Citation

Lancet T. Lancet 2022; 399(10341): 2075.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01006-6

PMID

35658980

Abstract

An epidemic of preventable violence is killing and harming Americans--especially, children and adolescents. On May 24, an 18-year-old man killed 19 children and two adults in Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. As the world mourns for the US and its children, the familiar cycle of grief, anger, activism, deflection, and inaction seems to have begun again. We share the view of those who argue that gun violence should be framed as a public health issue rather than a debate over the US Constitution's Second Amendment. But despite tragic school shooting events, such as at Columbine and Sandy Hook, little has changed in the protection of young people in the US from the harms of guns. Society and the legislature still refuse to act.

The USA is the high-income country with greatest burden of gun-related injury. An estimated 251 000 people died from firearm injuries worldwide in 2016, but roughly half of these deaths occurred in six countries in the Americas. Every day, more than 100 people in the US die from firearms and hundreds more are injured. Just a week before the shooting at Robb Elementary, an 18-year-old reportedly white supremacist killed ten people in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. According to the US CDC, 45 222 people died from gun-related injuries in 2020, 43% higher than a decade earlier.

Mass shootings make up a small percentage of the gun-related mortality and morbidity that haunts the USA. The most common causes are suicide (53% of gun-related deaths), homicide, or unintentional injuries with firearms. Many are preventable. The increase of firearm-related injuries in children and adolescents is particularly concerning...

Language: en