A death analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor showed that more children and teenagers were killed by guns in the United States in 2020 than from any other cause.

The analysis, based on death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), shows that car crashes overtake car accidents as the leading cause of death under the age of 19 in the United States in 2020.

Guns are the leading cause of death for this age group for the first time, according to research published in a letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Jason E. Goldstick, Rebecca M. Cunningham, and Patrick M. Carter.

“While the new data are consistent with other evidence of increased firearm violence during the Covid-19 pandemic, the reasons for the growth are unclear and it cannot be assumed that firearms-related deaths will later reverse to pre-pandemic levels.” researchers wrote.

“In either case, the increase in firearms death rates reflects a longer-term trend and indicates that we continue to fail to protect our youth from a preventable cause of death,” they added.