A gun has killed a child every other day since Sandy Hook

A woman takes a photograph at a Newtown 6 month remembrance event.

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

last updated 14 December 2015

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.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

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.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox