A gun has killed a child every other day since Sandy Hook
In the three years since a gunman killed 20 children and six staff members at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, children under 12 have died from gunshot wounds at a rate of one every other day, according to an NBC News analysis. That totals to roughly 554 child gunshot deaths, both intentional and accidental, since Newtown — a figure that NBC News suspects is low, since their data relies on news reports and other publicly available information, and child gun deaths sometimes go unreported.
By some accounts, the risk of a child dying from gunfire has even increased slightly since December 14, 2012: In 2014, 460 children and young teens died from gunshot wounds — the most since 1999.
But Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense founder Shannon Watts told NBC that she believes Sandy Hook will one day be seen as a turning point in reducing child gun deaths. "I wouldn't wake up and spend 12 hours a day working on this if I didn't think we were winning... I'm just so saddened by the lives we're going to lose in the meantime," she said.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Making sense of the week's political news, delivered every Wednesday
Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.