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Researchers say more young people are dying from incidents involving firearms, than in vehicle crashes

Guns for sale at a gun show in Naples, Fla.
Spencer Platt
/
Getty Images
Guns for sale at a gun show in Naples, Fla.

Researchers at the University of Michigan say, for the first time in a half-century, more young people are dying from incidents involving firearms, than in vehicle crashes.

The researchers analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They found in 2020, more than four thousand people up to the age of 19 died from a firearm.

That factors in homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings.

By contrast, just under four thousand people that age died in a vehicle crash, the most common cause of death for people in that age group since the Eisenhower era.

The analysis also finds a significant rise in fatalities from drug poisoning during that time period, though still fewer than half as many as those killed by a firearm or in a vehicle accident.

Quinn Klinefelter is a host and Senior News Editor for 101.9 WDET, anchoring midday newscasts and preparing reports for WDET, NPR and the BBC.