During COVID, Black Children Were 100x More Likely Than White Children to Experience Gun Injuries [bu.edu]

By Jillian McKoy, Photo: From article, Boston University School of Public Health, March 10, 2023

Gun violence—and racial disparities in gun violence—have increased substantially during the pandemic, particularly among children. Now a new study led by a School of Public Health researcher shows just how stark these differences in risk of firearm injury are between White and non-White children.

Published as a research letter in JAMA Network Open, the study examined gun injuries among children under 18 in four major US cities—New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia—and found that Black, Hispanic, and Asian children experienced substantial spikes in firearm assault injuries during the first 21 months of the pandemic, while White children did not experience an increase in firearm assault injuries at all.

Pre-COVID, non-White children already experienced a disproportionate burden of gun violence compared to White children. During the pandemic, this disparity in risk of being shot nearly quadrupled between Black and White children. Compared to White children, Black children were 100 times more likely to experience firearm assaults, as of December 2021—up from 27 times more likely before the pandemic. Similarly, the risk of firearm injury tripled between Hispanic children and White children, and nearly tripled between Asian children and White children.

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