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Table 1 Characteristics of unintentional firearm deaths of children (0–17), by race/ethnicity, NVDRS, 2015–2021 (32 states)1

From: Unintentional firearm deaths among children, 0–17 years of age, by race: Findings from the national violent death reporting system, 2015–2021

Victim Characteristics

Victim Racial Group

Black, non-Hispanic

Hispanic

Other

White, non-Hispanic

Total

Total

265 (47%)

51 (9%)

35 (6%)

217 (38%)

568 (100%)

Sex

     

 Female

53 (20%)

9 (18%)

8 (23%)

32 (15%)

102 (18%)

 Male

212 (80%)

42 (82%)

27 (77%)

185 (85%)

466 (82%)

Shooter Identity

     

 Self-inflicted

111 (42%)

*

*

91 (42%)

231 (41%)

 Other-inflicted

137 (52%)

33 (65%)

20 (57%)

107 (49%)

297 (52%)

    Family

51 (19%)

9 (18%)

11 (31%)

44 (20%)

115 (20%)

    Friend

46 (17%)

17 (33%)

6 (17%)

37 (17%)

106 (19%)

    Other

13 (5%)

*

*

7 (3%)

24 (4%)

    Missing or Unknown

27 (10%)

*

*

19 (9%)

52 (9%)

 Unknown whether self or other-inflicted

17 (6%)

*

*

19 (9%)

40 (7%)

Age

     

 < 5

79 (30%)

8 (16%)

11 (31%)

53 (24%)

151 (27%)

 5–9

43 (16%)

5 (10%)

5 (14%)

23 (11%)

76 (13%)

 10–14

55 (21%)

16 (31%)

6 (17%)

57 (26%)

134 (24%)

 15–17

88 (33%)

22 (43%)

13 (37%)

84 (39%)

207 (36%)

Death Location

     

 Home

232 (88%)

45 (88%)

27 (77%)

172 (79%)

476 (84%)

    Other Home

78 (29%)

18 (35%)

9 (26%)

58 (27%)

163 (29%)

    Victim Home

153 (58%)

27 (53%)

18 (51%)

113 (52%)

311 (55%)

 Other

24 (9%)

*

*

*

79 (14%)

 Unknown or Missing

9 (3%)

*

*

*

13 (2%)

Firearm Type

     

 Handgun

196 (74%)

41 (80%)

23 (66%)

136 (63%)

396 (70%)

 Long gun

15 (6%)

*

*

59 (27%)

91 (16%)

 Missing or Unknown

54 (20%)

*

*

22 (10%)

81 (14%)

County Urbanicity

     

 Large central metro

94 (35%)

13 (25%)

7 (20%)

21 (10%)

135 (24%)

 Large fringe metro

61 (23%)

*

*

38 (18%)

121 (21%)

 Medium metro

60 (23%)

10 (20%)

6 (17%)

43 (20%)

119 (21%)

 Small metro

29 (11%)

*

*

24 (11%)

60 (11%)

 Micropolitan

15 (6%)

*

*

49 (23%)

70 (12%)

 Noncore

6 (2%)

5 (10%)

10 (29%)

42 (19%)

63 (11%)

Circumstance**

     

 Playing

173 (65%)

39 (76%)

23 (66%)

124 (57%)

359 (63%)

 H/TS/Other

16 (6%)

*

*

36 (17%)

60 (11%)

 Other

42 (16%)

*

*

40 (18%)

91 (16%)

 Missing

34 (13%)

*

*

17 (8%)

58 (10%)

  1. 1. States included are: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin (2015–2021); Indiana, Iowa (2016–2021); New York (2015–2019, 2021); Washington (2018–2021); Hawaii (2015–2016, 2019); Pennsylvania, Illinois (2020–2021). Select counties from Pennsylvania and Illinois (2016–2019); Washington (2016, 2017)
  2. *Suppressed data
  3. **Playing circumstances include playing, thought toy, and showing; H/TS/Other specific circumstances include hunting, target shooting, cleaning, loading unloading, holstering, firing while engaging safety, and dropping. Other includes other injury mechanism, other context injury, bullet ricochet, self-defense, celebratory firing, unintentionally pulled trigger, and gun defect. It’s further noted no cases of playing were also coded as hunting, and of the 28 deaths associated with hunting or target shooting, White children made up 25 of the decedents
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Injury Epidemiology

ISSN: 2197-1714