New report shows high cost of gun violence among America's youth

Dexter Mullins & Tom Kutsch

The Children's Defense Fund took aim at the National Rifle Association on Wednesday, releasing a report on the impact guns have on children, hoping to succeed where Congress failed in the wake of the 2012 shooting deaths of 20 children in Newtown, CT.

The report, Protect Children, Not Guns 2013, specifically targets the National Rifle Association (NRA), the nation’s leading gun lobbying organization, which it claims has been a consistent roadblock to efforts of increasing gun safety measures in the nation.

The research for 2010 gathered by the CDF includes:  

·Every 30 minutes a child or teen is injured by a gun.

·18,720 children and teens died from guns: The equivalent of 17 classrooms of 20 children per week.

·Children and teens in America are 17 times more likely to die from gun violence than peers in 25 other high-income countries combined.

·The number of children and teens killed by guns in 2010 is five times higher than soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

·The U.S. accounts for 5 percent of global population but has an estimated 35 – 50 percent of the world’s civilian-owned guns

·Guns are second leading cause of death among children and teens ages 1-19. Among blacks they’re the highest cause of death.

·166,500 children and teens died from guns between 1963 and 2010; more than double the  52,183 U.S. soldiers were  killed in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq wars combined.

·Total gun deaths and injuries in 2010 cost the U.S. $174.1 Billion; 1.15 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.

The 76 page report breaks down gun deaths on a state-by-state level, and compares the rate of death in the U.S. to 25 other high-income countries: the U.S. ranks the highest. The group is urging people to take action by pressuring congress to enact meaningful gun control legislation.

"What is it going to take for our political leaders to place protection of child and teen and adult lives ahead of the protection of guns and profits and their election to office?” Marian Wright Edelman, the president of CDF says in the report.“We can and must do better. Countless lives depend on it. We must push the President, members of Congress, governors, and state legislators to stand up to the NRA, gun manufacturers and sellers until protecting children's lives takes precedence over protecting guns."

 Despite multiple attempts, the NRA was not available for comment on the report.