This false claim from Biden and the CDC has already been disproven, but the fact-checkers of Politifact will circle around it anyway.
Are firearms the leading cause of death in children?
In a speech on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., recounted details of two recent mass shootings, one in a Buffalo supermarket and the other at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. He called on his colleagues to tighten the nation’s gun laws.
“America doesn’t stand out when it comes to the rate of mental illness, but we are unique among the world’s developed nations in that today the leading cause of death among children is no longer a car accident, is no longer illness or malnourishment. The leading cause of death among children is a firearm,” Schumer said.
Schumer is correct, depending on you define children,
Depending on “you define children” indeed.
If you define 19-year-old gang members in Chicago as children, then sure. Very few children are killed by firearms, quite a few black male inner city teens are.
Instead of honestly stating these facts, Biden, Schumer, the Democrats and the media continue to push the same “children” nonsense.
Why this bizarre claim that 19-year-olds are children?
While gun and motor vehicle deaths increased substantially in 2020, the latest year final numbers were available, claims that more children and teens die due to guns than motor vehicles only hold up when 18- to 19-year-olds are included, a group that accounts for nearly as many gun deaths as 1 to 17-year-olds combined do, according to an NBC News analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Eliminate 16 and 17-year-olds and this entire big lie disappears.
somehistory says
The thing they do most: Lie. If lying to the public was a crime, …they wouldn’t prosecute themselves; they’d just keep on lying and then make a law that says it’s okay to lie to the public, but they’d keep the law about it being a crime to lie to them.
gravenimage says
FACT CHECK: PolitiFact Falsely Claims ‘Among Children, Firearms the Leading Cause of Death in 2020’
……………
No surprise here, since this fits the narrative.
And mentioning car accidents and illness in general as other causes of death is certainly reasonable, but *malnourishment*? Do we really want to be a nation where significant numbers of children die of hunger? The only places where this happens are chaotic war zones like Congo and Yemen. This isn’t even happening in Ukraine.
Hunger is, thankfully, not among the top ten causes of death.
somehistory says
a woman and her daughter allowed the children of the younger to be malnourished and covered in head lice until one of them died from it. Cause of death was due to the headlice and neglect.
Both women were arrested and charged with murder. Both in jail, waiting. makes me sick and angry to read of such things.
It does happen, but drownings happen too. That is usually higher in number than death by guns
gravenimage says
True, Somehistory–I should have noted that.
What I meant was that no children in the US are dying of malnutrition save in cases of deliberate *extreme abuse*. This is not something even the poorest families here experience.
somehistory says
I know. I just read of that awful case today and thought I would share it to get past it if I could. there is a lot more hunger today than in the recent past, and likely to get worse due to prices rising so fast.
gravenimage says
Thank you, Somehistory. A terrible case.
OLD GUY says
A GUN never kills it is always the person handling it that causes it to go off. Yes people kill other people they use guns, ball batts, knives, wire, rope, table legs, bombs, gasoline, poisons, belts, bottles, and just about anything else they can get their hands on. So maybe HANDS are the problem they are used in every case.
Tom says
One has to dissect every word that is spoken by democrats because in every word they utter there is a grain of truth engulfed by a mountain of lies, and there has to be for them to achieve their narratives goal.
Honesty and integrity are things of the past for democrats. Lies and deception replaced those virtues decades ago.
“The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.” Albert Camus
joanofark06 says
Everyone would get a giggle, or even a laugh out of THIS video, where at one point, the exact same subject of this article here, is spoke about! Everyone would agree with JP in the video, that ABORTION is the leading cause of deaths of children, NOT firearms!
We’re Here To BRAINWASH You! – News Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz8ARVxdHkI
CogitoErgoSum says
IF 18 and 19 year-olds are children what does it say about our society that our military trains children and sends them off to war to fight and die for us? If a person must be 21 to purchase a firearm will the minimum age to serve in the military become 21 also? From what I am seeing these days I think the reality is that most people remain in a state of childhood until they are about 50. My suggestion is that we pass a law that no one can buy a gun or serve in the military until the age of 50.
Keith O says
Gun control Australia tried similar BS a few years ago.
They were called out when it was discovered via a leak that they had used “children” up to the age of 25 in their claims.
Firearm related deaths included those on farms where there was obviously a gun on the farm, motor vehicle accidents where the drivers were heading out on a hunting trip, these sorts of things.
So, the use of totally warped statistics is not uncommon, bring dementia Joe and the Demoncraps into the equation and things start to get really interesting.