With just a few days left until the new year, 2022 has already set a grim record: so far at least 6,036 children across the United States have been killed or injured by gunfire, according to the Gun Violence Archive.<\/p>\n
As of Tuesday, 306 children under age 12 were killed by guns and another 668 were injured nationwide. For those ages 12-17, 1,328 were killed and 3,734 were injured.<\/p>\n
Those figures include the 19 kids\u2014but not the two adults\u2014killed in the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and come just a few weeks after the nation marked the 10th anniversary of the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Launched in 2013, the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) is an online project that aims \u201cto document incidents of gun violence and gun crime nationally to provide independent, verified data to those who need to use it in their research, advocacy, or writing.\u201d<\/p>\n
GVA\u2019s annual figures for child deaths and injuries go back to 2014. As the group highlighted in a tweet Monday, this year is the first in recorded history that the overall number has topped 6,000\u2014which Project Unloaded called \u201cheartbreaking and preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob Sumner, who is pursuing a master\u2019s degree in public administration at Arizona State University as a Sackton fellow, tweeted of GVA\u2019s figures that \u201cwe should not and cannot allow that to be normal. We need lifesaving commonsense gun safety measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noting ABC News\u2018 reporting on the record, Brady PAC\u2014a political action committee that supports candidates who champion policies to reduce gun violence\u2014declared that \u201cour children have the right to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another ABC reader described the development as \u201can absolute fucking disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. President Joe Biden\u2014who signed some gun safety reforms into law after the Uvalde shooting\u2014said on the Sandy Hook anniversary that \u201cwe have a moral obligation to pass and enforce laws that can prevent these things from happening again.\u201d However, with the GOP set to take control of the U.S. House next week, progress on the issue over the next two years is unlikely.<\/p>\n