EXPLAINER
Firearms are the main reason for dying for US younger folks aged 18 to 25, surpassing drug poisoning and different causes.
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Printed On 25 Apr 2025
After a gunman at Florida State University killed two folks and wounded at the least six others final week, an advocacy group posted about firearm-related deaths.
“Gun violence is the main killer of college-aged folks within the US,” Mothers Demand Motion, a part of gun violence prevention organisation Everytown for Gun Security, posted on April 17 on Threads. “Our younger folks deserve higher.”
Based on well being specialists and the latest knowledge, the assertion is correct for firearm-related deaths on this class of younger folks.
Everytown for Gun Security launched a 2023 report citing 2021 Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) knowledge exhibiting firearms are the primary mechanism of dying for folks aged 18 to 25. Everytown for Gun Security spokesperson Katie Wertheimer additionally pointed to a 2022 article revealed within the journal Pediatrics that discovered “firearms are the main reason for dying in kids and youth 0 to 24 years of age in the USA.”
PolitiFact queried the CDC’s Internet-based Harm Statistics Question and Reporting System for knowledge on the latest harm deaths for ages 18 to 25. In 2023, firearms had been the mechanism that accounted for probably the most deaths in that age group, at 8,086. For ages 24 and 25, drug poisoning was the highest trigger.
CDC knowledge confirmed accidents, adopted by suicide and murder, had been the main causes of dying amongst folks aged 18 to 25. These classes all embody firearm-related deaths. Brian Tsai, a CDC spokesperson, informed PolitiFact that though the company doesn’t rank firearm deaths as a number one reason for dying as a result of they happen throughout classes, “our knowledge does present that firearms are the main mechanism of harm mortality.”
“Classes for rating reason for dying should be mutually unique and it has been CDC’s longstanding coverage to rank the murder, suicide and unintentional harm classes,” Tsai stated in an e-mail. “CDC doesn’t classify firearms as a reason for dying, however somewhat as a mechanism by which dying happens (similar is true for motorcar accidents).”
The CDC considers unintentional firearm accidents as “deadly or nonfatal firearm accidents that occur whereas somebody is cleansing or enjoying with a firearm or different incidents of an unintentional firing with out proof of intentional hurt”.
In 2023, CDC knowledge confirmed unintentional accidents (14,238) had been the main reason for dying amongst folks ages 18 to 25, adopted by suicide (5,632) and murder (5,060). Narrowing all the way down to deaths by firearm, the bulk had been homicides (4,651), adopted by suicides (3,158).
Gun-rights advocates query whether or not the time period “gun violence” ought to embody suicides. International locations, akin to Canada and Australia, embody firearm suicide in that time period. Surveys about gun violence use various language and standards on together with suicide deaths.
Daniel Webster, distinguished scholar for the Johns Hopkins Middle for Gun Violence Options, informed PolitiFact the Mothers Demand Motion assertion is correct.
Veronica Pear, a College of California Davis College of Medication social epidemiologist and assistant professor, additionally stated the statistic is correct, based mostly on 2023 mortality knowledge, noting that “gun violence” consists of suicide and murder.
Wertheimer referred PolitiFact to a 2024 article by KFF, a well being data nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information, that stated firearm-related deaths amongst ages 18 to 25 “are predominantly because of homicides”.
Shootings on college and faculty grounds seem to make up a small portion of firearm-related deaths amongst folks aged 18 to 25. Based on Everytown for Gun Security, there have been 463 deaths from gunfire on college grounds since 2013. A mean of 4,300 kids and teenagers, as much as age 19, had been shot and killed per 12 months from 2019 to 2023, Everytown for Gun Security reported.
Our ruling
Mothers Demand Motion stated “gun violence is the main killer of college-aged folks within the US”.
Unintentional deaths ranked #1 for folks ages 18 to 25 in 2023, and firearms had been the “main mechanism”, in accordance with the CDC.
Based mostly on knowledgeable evaluation and the info, we price the assertion True.
