More Children and Teens Lost to Gun Violence in America Than Servicemen

Killed in Combat in Afghanistan and Iraq

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the nation's mayors
 discuss solutions to gun violence at their annual conference, the
 Children's Defense Fund today released Protect Children, Not Guns 2007, its
 new annual report that details how each and every day we continue to lose
 children and teens to gun violence in America.
     "Gun violence affects everyone in America and is a major public health
 problem," said Marian Wright Edelman, CDF President. "Each and every day in
 America we continue to lose far too many children and teens to gun violence
 in towns, cities and rural areas all across the country. What is it going
 to take for us to stop the killing of our youth and the proliferation of
 guns, which leave every single American at risk?"
     According to the CDF report, which uses the latest data from the
 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2004 alone the gun death
 toll for children and teens in the United States was 2,825, more than the
 total number of American service men and women who died in combat in Iraq
 and Afghanistan since those wars began though December 2006.
     Gun violence exacted a high toll on America's children and teens in
 2004:
     -- 58 preschoolers were killed by firearms, while 57 law enforcement
 officers were killed in the line of duty.
     -- 60 percent of the children and teens killed were White; 37 percent
 were Black.
     -- White children and teens were nine times as likely to commit suicide
 by guns as Black children and teens.
     -- Girls are not immune to gun violence. The number of girls killed by
 firearms rose from 325 in 2003 to 387 in 2004 -- a 19 percent increase.
     -- Firearm deaths of children and teens went up more than 10 percent in
 six states-Michigan, Colorado, Tennessee, Arizona, New Jersey,
 Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia.
     "There must be a movement to end gun violence in our country and stop
 the proliferation of guns," said Edelman. "Let us build on the current
 initiative of more than 120 U.S. mayors who have called for national
 leadership to wage war on the gun violence that snuffs out so many lives in
 America."
     A full copy of the report can be found at:
 http://www.childrensdefense.org/gunreport.
     The Children's Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind(R) mission is to
 ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe
 Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with
 the help of caring families and communities.
     CONTACT: Nayyera Haq of Children's Defense Fund, +1-202-662-3592
 
 

SOURCE Children's Defense Fund