Gun violence leading cause of kids' death in U.S., but not elsewhere: Patch

NEW YORK, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- More American kids lost their lives to gun violence in 2020 than in any year before as firearms-related deaths eclipsed motor vehicle fatalities for children one to 19 years old, putting the United States in a class of its own among wealthy, similarly sized countries, U.S. news portal Patch on Thursday cited a pair of reports.

"Most of the more than 4,350 U.S. children and young adults in that age group who died in firearms violence in 2020 -- a stunning 30 percent increase from 2019 -- weren't killed in mass shootings," said Patch in its article.

Rather, research shows, most were killed in homes and neighborhoods in incidents that didn't get the attention of the mass shootings, it noted. A firearms death is considered one that results from homicide, suicide or accidental death.

Firearms deaths among children aren't a uniquely American problem, but the United States far outpaces other similarly large wealthy countries in this category, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The United States accounts for 97 percent of gun-related child deaths among the 12 wealthy nations it studied, despite having only 45 percent of the population of the cluster, according to Kaiser.