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Every child deserves to live free from violence. Our nation's kids pay an enormous price for our weak gun laws. We must do better.

From 2015 to 2018, more than 35,000 American children were shot before their 18th birthdays. This trauma and suffering shouldn't be a normal part of growing up.

Young people face threats of mass shootings in schools, armed domestic violence at home, and community violence in neighborhood parks and streets. They are at higher risk of firearm suicide and unintentional shootings than older Americans.

Living every day in fear takes a terrible toll on young people. We can do so much more to combat our epidemic of gun violence and stand up for our children's right to grow up healthy, safe, and without fear.

Why This Matters

Thirteen-year-old Brooklynn was president of her elementary school, an honor roll student, violinist, runner, and award-winning gymnast. She loved animals and frequently rescued stray dogs, giving them the care she brought to everything in her life.

On June 4, 2013, Brooklynn went over to her best friend's house after a half-day at school. When Brooklynn's father arrived to pick her up, she was struggling for air, choking on her body fluid. A hollow-point bullet had entered her back and ripped through her body before exiting her chest. She didn't survive.

Brooklynn died because of an unsecured gun in her best friend's home. No charges were filed, and her death was ruled an accident. There was no accountability for the owner who stored their gun where a child could easily access it.

"I always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here too. I wasn't surprised, I was just scared."

Unintentional shootings are just one of the many ways that guns kill, injure, and traumatize thousands of American children every year. Firearm suicide, domestic violence, community violence, and mass shootings pose a significantly higher risk to kids in the United States than kids in other high-income countries.

Our kids shouldn't have to learn how to cower under their desks or apply shoelace tourniquets. Parents shouldn't have to mourn the life, dreams, and potential of their son or daughter cut short by a bullet. Tragically, this is the case for far too many American families. There are simple steps we can and must take to save lives and protect our kids and communities.

OUR STORIES

We're youth activists, survivors, doctors, and gun owners. We're united in the fight to end gun violence.
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The Problem

The combination of widespread gun ownership and weak gun safety laws creates a uniquely dangerous environment for American children. 91% of children killed with guns in high-income countries are killed in the US.

The effects of this gun violence epidemic are devastating. Each year, over 8,000 minors are killed or seriously injured by firearms in the US. Meanwhile, survivors and their loved ones grapple with grief, trauma, and fear.

Children in neighborhoods where shootings are a daily occurrence are terrified of being hit by bullets as they walk home from school or sit on their front porches. They are taught to hide under beds or in bathtubs at the sound of gunfire. These realities rob children of any sense of safety and security, and can have a lasting detrimental impact on their lives and wellbeing. Nearly 40% of children exposed to a shooting will develop PTSD.

Over 221,000 K-12 students have experienced a shooting at their school since Columbine, and more than four million students endured at least one lockdown during the 2017-2018 school year. Most American schoolchildren today have been alive for at least six of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in American history, including the December 2012 mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary that left 20 first-graders and six adults dead. Unsurprisingly, a majority of high school students report feeling concerned about a mass shooting in their own school or community.

kids live in homes with a loaded, unlocked gun
In the US, 4.6 million minors live in homes with at least one loaded and unsecured firearm. Child access prevention laws can help prevent unintentional shootings and gun suicides.

Source

Deborah Azrael, Joanna Cohen, Carmel Salhi, and Matthew Miller, "Firearm Storage in Gun-owning Households with Children: Results of a 2015 National Survey," Journal of Urban Health 95, no. 3 (2018): 295-304.; Matthew Miller and Deborah Azrael, "Firearm Storage in US Households with Children: Findings from the 2021 National Firearm Survey," JAMA Network Open 5, no. 2 (2022).

Increase in gun suicides among minors

Between 2012 and 2021, firearm suicides involving minors increased by a disturbing 81%. Laws that require safe storage of guns have the potential to save the lives of young people in crisis.

Source

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2021 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2023. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2021, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html on Feb 13, 2023. Calculations include children ages 0-17 and were based on the most recently available data: 2012 to 2021.

The Solution

We can, and must, make our country a safer place for children to grow up. Rather than accepting school shootings and other violence against children as the price of freedom, we need to take steps to ensure the safety of our kids. A number of effective policy solutions can better protect children from violence:

Closing background check and domestic violence loopholes can prevent people with histories of violent behavior from accessing firearms.

Investing in community-based violence intervention programs has been proven to reduce shootings in cities, making it less likely children will be harmed or killed by stray bullets.

Child access prevention laws help ensure responsible firearm storage by holding adults accountable when kids gain access to their guns. States that have implemented these laws have seen reductions in youth suicides and unintentional injuries.

Raising the minimum age for civilians to purchase a firearm would help prevent young people from owning guns until their brains are more fully developed. Studies have found this policy decreases suicides and unintentional shootings.

Extreme risk protection orders have been proven to reduce suicides and have the potential to prevent mass shootings like the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland.

The gun lobby insists that the only way to protect our children is to put more guns in more places, including classrooms-but the evidence says otherwise. The policy solutions listed above must be a part of any honest effort to save children's lives from gun violence.

SPOTLIGHT

KEEPING KIDS SAFE

Protecting the Next Generation: Strategies to Keep America's Kids Safe from Gun Violence examines the life-altering implications for the children who witness or survive shootings, particularly with regard to their mental health, and lays out the solutions that can prevent these tragedies.
Read More

What Giffords Is Doing

For years, Giffords has helped write, pass, and enact legislation that is reducing gun violence and saving lives. Against fierce opposition, we have helped pass more than 350 new gun safety laws in 45 states and Washington DC since the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

In addition to our work enacting new gun safety laws, our experts at Giffords Law Center are defending our hard-won victories in court and pushing back against the gun lobby's reckless efforts to arm teachers. In November 2018, we partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center and pro bono counsel at Munger, Tolles & Olson and Stearns Weaver Miller to represent elementary school students and parents suing Duval County, Florida, over an illegal and dangerous decision to let inadequately trained staff carry guns in schools. The case is ongoing: as of summer 2020, we are representing the families in an appeal after a Florida trial judge agreed in part with Giffords Law Center's arguments, but then upheld Duval County's program.

We've also been making considerable progress at the federal level, though we still have a long way to go. In 2019, Giffords Law Center Executive Director Robyn Thomas testified in the first congressional hearing on gun violence in over a decade. Giffords helped pass a universal background checks bill through the House of Representatives and helped secure the first funding for gun violence research since the 1990s.

In order to protect the next generation from gun violence, we must work together to stand up to the gun lobby and pass desperately needed gun safety laws. The future of our children depends on it.

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Every child deserves to live free from violence. Our nation's kids pay an enormous price for our weak gun laws. We must do better. From 2015 to 2018, more than 35,000 American children were shot before their 18th birthdays. This trauma and suffering shouldn't be a normal part of growing up.

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Firearm injuries and deaths in the United States have increased in recent years and adversely affect many children and adolescents. In 2020, firearms became the leading cause of death among children ages 19 and below and in the first six months of 2022, there were over 300 mass shootings across the U.S., including the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.

In addition to physical harm, direct and indirect exposure to gun violence can negatively affect the mental health and well-being of youth. This brief explores trends in firearm-related injury and mortality among children (ages 17 and below) and how they vary by race and sex. We analyze data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Wonder injury and mortality database and define firearm-related deaths as gun assault deaths, suicide deaths by firearm, deaths due to accidental firearm discharge, legal intervention leading to firearm death, and firearm deaths from an undetermined cause. This brief also examines the negative mental health consequences stemming from exposure to gun violence and describes recent policy responses.

During the pandemic, firearm-related deaths increased among children, with seven children per day dying by firearm in 2021. From 2011 to 2021, nearly 18,500 children ages 17 and younger died by firearm. During this period, firearm death rates gradually rose until 2017, then slowed through 2019, before sharply rising in the first two years of the pandemic (Figure 1). From 2019 to 2021, the firearm death rate among children increased by 50% (from 2.4 to 3.6 per 100,000). This translates to seven children per day dying by firearm in 2021. Throughout the past decade, assaults have accounted for at least half of all youth firearm deaths while suicides by firearm have accounted for at least three in ten of these deaths. The spike in youth firearm deaths during the pandemic have primarily been driven by gun assaults. Firearm-related injuries among children have also increased in recent years - from 9.9 per 100,000 in 2010 to 15.5 per 100,000 in 2020 (the latest firearm injury data available).

By 2021, suicide deaths by firearm accounted for nearly half of all suicides among children and adolescents. Following a brief period of decline, suicide deaths by firearm increased by 26% among youth, from 657 deaths in 2019 to 857 deaths in 2021 (Figure 2). Meanwhile, suicide deaths by other means have declined among youth since 2018. As a result, suicide deaths by firearm accounted for 47% of all youth suicides in 2021.

Firearm death rates sharply increased among Black and Hispanic youth during the pandemic. In 2021, the rate of firearm-related deaths among Black youth was 12.0 per 100,000 - substantially higher than any other racial and ethnic group and six times higher than White youth (Figure 3). Although Black children made up 14% of the youth U.S. population in 2021, they accounted for 46% of youth firearm deaths. Additionally, from 2018 to 2021, the rate of firearm-related deaths doubled among Black youth and increased by 50% among Hispanic youth. While firearm death rates for American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) youth fluctuated over the same period, they remained higher than the rates of their White peers. White youth experienced relatively stable and lower firearm mortality rates from 2018 to 2021 (from 2.0 to 2.3 per 100,000), while Asian youth had the lowest firearm mortality rates across the period (Figure 3).

The recent increases in firearm deaths among Black and Hispanic youth were primarily driven by gun assaults and suicides by firearm. During the pandemic, the largest increases in gun assault deaths across racial and ethnic groups were among Black youth (80% increase from 556 deaths in 2019 to 1,000 deaths in 2021) and Hispanic youth (46% increase from 195 deaths in 2019 to 284 deaths in 2021) (Figure 4). Additionally, although suicide deaths by firearm are highest among White youth, the largest percent increases of these deaths were among Black youth (77% increase from 60 deaths in 2019 to 106 deaths in 2021) and Hispanic youth (48% increase from 79 deaths in 2019 to 117 deaths in 2021) (Figure 4). Data on firearm-related injury rates by race and ethnicity was not available. In general, children of color are more often exposed to gun violence than their White peers. A recent study found that this disparity in exposure to gun violence has been exacerbated during the pandemic, particularly for Black children. Further, a separate study found that children living in areas with a high concentration of poverty are more likely to experience firearm-related deaths and poverty disproportionately affects children of color.

Male youth are over four times more likely than their female peers to die by firearm. From 2018 to 2021, the rate of deaths due to firearms increased by 53% among male youth but remained lower and stable among female youth (Figure 5). Firearm-related injury rates were also substantially higher for male youth than females (25.9 vs. 4.5 per 100,000) in 2020 (the latest firearm injury data available).

Gun violence can adversely affect the mental health and well-being of children. Children are exposed to firearms in a number of ways, including domestic violence and firearms stored at home, and neighborhood and school violence. This exposure may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, in addition to other mental health concerns. Specifically, survivors of firearm-related injuries, including youth survivors, may be at increased risk of mental health conditions and substance use disorders. Gun violence may also lead to challenges with school performance, including increased absenteeism and difficulty concentrating. Additionally, research has found that access to firearms, particularly in the home, is a risk factor for suicide deaths among children and adolescents. Nearly half of suicide attempts occur within 10 minutes of the current suicide thought, further underscoring access to firearms as a risk factor for suicide.

Although mass shootings, including school shootings, account for a small portion of firearm-related deaths, they can negatively impact the mental health of children and communities at large. For example, research has found that youth antidepressant use and suicide risk increased in communities with exposures to school shootings. Additionally, a survey prior to the pandemic found that the majority of teenagers and their parents felt at least somewhat worried that a school shooting may occur at their school. In response to school shootings, nearly all schools practice active shooter drills. Some research suggests these drills have a negative psychological impact on participants. Although research is limited on how mass shootings affect individuals not directly exposed to them, current literature suggests that information and knowledge of mass shootings may be linked to increased levels of fear and anxiety.

Recent policies address gun reform and expand mental health services for children and adolescents. In response to increasing gun violence, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was recently passed. This legislation introduces several gun reform provisions, such as strengthening background checks for young adults and reducing gun access for individuals with a history of domestic violence. The legislation also focuses on youth mental health, including expanding school-based mental health services and providing trauma care to students in need. Prior legislation, such as the American Rescue Plan Act and state-level policies, have also provided pathways to expand mental health services for students in schools. The Biden-Harris administration has put forth several additional initiatives aimed at addressing youth mental health, including expanding the behavioral health workforce and suicide prevention efforts. The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced an initiative aimed at promoting Black youth mental health - this comes at a time when suicide rates among Black youth have sharply increased. Additionally, the federally mandated crisis number, 988, was rolled out this summer and can connect individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts or other behavioral health emergencies to crisis counselors. Further, after an extended period of funding freezes and limited research, recent federal budgets have allocated funding for gun violence research.

While some measures have been taken toward gun reform and addressing youth mental health, challenges remain. Gun violence disproportionately affects many children of color, particularly Black children, and this disparity has grown in the light of the pandemic. This may lead to increased mental health concerns among children of color. This comes at a time when, in general, concerns about youth mental health have grown but access to and utilization of mental health care may have worsened. Children of color may face added barriers to mental health care in light of long-standing cultural inequities and a lack of culturally informed care. Continued efforts to address exposure to gun violence and improve access to mental health services may help mitigate adverse impacts among youth.

This work was supported in part by Well Being Trust. KFF maintains full editorial control over all of its policy analysis, polling, and journalism activities.

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The Impact of Gun Violence on Children and Adolescents | KFF

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Gun violence has increased in recent years, particularly during the pandemic, and adversely affects many children and adolescents. This brief explores the disproportionate impacts of gun violence on children of color and male youth and the negative mental health consequences associated with gun violence.

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17 Facts About Gun Violence And School Shootings

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Gun violence and school shootings are a uniquely American epidemic. Sandy Hook Promise is shining a light on these important facts and statistics.

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Children and teens in the U.S. experience staggeringly high rates of gun deaths and injuries. They are also harmed when a friend or family member is killed with a gun, when someone they know is shot, and when they witness and hear gunshots. Tragically, children and teens are at heightened risk by guns in the home. The vast majority of child and teen gun homicide deaths and unintentional shooting deaths and injuries occur in the home. More than 80 percent of child suicides involve a gun that belongs to a family member.

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Children and teens in the U.S. experience staggeringly high rates of gun deaths and injuries. They are also harmed when a friend or family member is killed with a gun, when someone they know is shot, and when they witness and hear gunshots. Tragically, children and teens are at heightened risk by guns in the home.

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When Davonte was asked what he wanted for his birthday, he didn't ask for a big celebration, he only said, "I'm glad I made it to see 18." He was shot and killed less than one week after turning 18. He had previously spoken before the Baltimore City Council on youth violence prevention.

The Deadly Impact of Guns on Children and Teens in America

Annually, nearly 4,000 children and teens (ages 0 to 19) are shot and killed, and 15,000 are shot and wounded-that's an average of 53 American children and teens every day. And the effects of gun violence extend far beyond those struck by a bullet: An estimated three million children witness a shooting each year. Gun violence shapes the lives of the children who witness it, know someone who was shot, or live in fear of the next shooting.

Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens. This is a uniquely American problem. Compared to other high-income countries, American children aged 5 to 14 are 21 times more likely to be killed with guns, and American adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 24 are 23 times more likely to be killed with guns.

When American children and teens are killed with guns, 62 percent are homicides-nearly 2,500 deaths per year. Children are particularly impacted by the intersection of domestic violence and gun violence. For children under age 13 who are victims of gun homicides, 85 percent of those deaths occur in the home, and nearly a third of those deaths are connected to intimate partner or family violence. Between 2015 and 2022, nearly two in three child and teen victims of mass shootings died in incidents connected to domestic violence. Data drawn from 16 states indicate that nearly two-thirds of child fatalities involving domestic violence were caused by guns.

Another 33 percent of child and teen gun deaths are suicides-1,300 per year. And firearm suicide has been rising dramatically: Over the past decade, the firearm suicide rate among children and teens has increased by 66 percent. For people of all ages, having access to a gun increases the risk of death by suicide by three times. Research shows that an estimated 4.6 million American children live in homes with at least one gun that is loaded and unlocked. The combination of suicidal ideation and easy firearm access can be lethal. When children under the age of 18 die by gun suicide, they are likely to have used a gun they found at home: Over 80 percent of child gun suicides involved a gun belonging to a parent or relative.

Gun violence manifests in a myriad of ways in American schools, and school shootings have created new anxieties for the younger generation of students. According to an Everytown analysis, there have been at least 549 incidents of gunfire on school grounds from 2013 to 2019. Of these, 347 occurred on the grounds of elementary, middle, or high schools, resulting in 129 deaths and 270 people wounded. While mass shootings like the incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School-and, more recently, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and Santa Fe High School-are not commonplace, schools are more likely to experience gun homicides and assaults, unintentional shootings resulting in injury or death, and gun suicide and self-harm injuries. All incidents of gun violence in schools, regardless of their intent or victim count, compromise the safety of students and staff.

Children and teens who live in cities are at a significantly higher risk of gun homicides and assaults compared to their peers in rural areas. Ninety-two percent of all hospitalizations of children for firearm injuries occur in urban areas (counties with over 50,000 residents). These injuries have lifelong consequences: Almost 50 percent of the wounded have a disability when they are discharged from the hospital. Fifteen- to 19-year-olds in urban areas are hospitalized for firearm assaults at a rate eight times higher than 15- to 19-year-olds in rural areas. Urban and low-income youth are much more likely to witness gun violence than suburban and higher-income youth.

The Disproportionate Impact of Gun Violence on Black and Latinx Children and Teens

As with gun violence generally, impact among children and teens is not equally shared across populations. Black children and teens in America are 17 times more likely than their white peers to die by gun homicide. Black children and teens are 13 times more likely to be hospitalized for a firearm assault than white children. Latinx children and teens are 2.7 times more likely to die by gun homicide than their white peers.

White and Black children may live in the same city yet experience it differently. Due to policy decisions that enforce racial segregation and disinvestment in certain communities, gun violence is concentrated in Black neighborhoods within cities, many of which are marked by high levels of poverty and joblessness and low levels of investment in education. A high concentration of these factors in a neighborhood is referred to as "concentrated disadvantage" and is a strong predictor of violent crime. Youth in neighborhoods that experience concentrated disadvantage can be isolated from institutions such as schools and jobs, increasing the risk that they will engage in crime and violence, thus feeding into this vicious cycle of violence.

Black and Latinx children in cities are exposed to violence at higher rates than white children. Exposure includes witnessing violence, hearing gunshots, and knowing individuals who have been shot. Black children in Columbus, OH, were exposed to 66 percent more violence, on average, than white children. In Chicago, Latinx children had 74 percent greater odds of exposure to violence, and Black children 112 percent greater odds, than white children. When children in these cities are exposed to gun violence, their communities and schools often lack the resources to help them heal.

The disproportionate impact of gun violence on Black and Latinx children and teens extends to schools. Among the 335 incidents of gunfire at K-12 schools between 2013 and 2019, where the racial demographic information of the student body was known, 64 percent occurred in majority-minority schools. Although Black students represent approximately 15 percent of the total K-12 school population in America, they constitute 25 percent of the K-12 student victims of gunfire who were killed or shot and wounded on school grounds.

While the above discussion shows the disparate experiences of gun violence by race and ethnicity, the data further show that gun violence is concentrated in specific neighborhoods in cities, with some schools and certain communities experiencing gun violence with an alarming frequency.

Of the schools covered by gunshot detection technology in Washington, DC, just 9 percent experienced nearly half of all gunfire incidents. Four schools, including two middle schools and two high schools, had at least nine incidents of gunfire within just 500 feet of the school.

Similarly, in Los Angeles, 34 percent of middle school students in one neighborhood with high rates of violence reported exposure to firearm violence.

At certain urban middle schools in Texas, nearly 40 percent of boys and 30 percent of girls have witnessed a gun being pulled.

A study of 7-year-olds in an urban neighborhood found that 75 percent had heard gunshots, 18 percent had seen a dead body, and 61 percent worried some or a lot of the time that they might get killed or die.

The Far-reaching Impact of Children's and Teens' Exposure to Gun Violence

Children are harmed in numerous ways when they witness violence. Children exposed to violence, crime, and abuse are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol; suffer from depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder; resort to aggressive and violent behavior; and engage in criminal activity. Exposure to community violence, including witnessing shootings and hearing gunshots, makes it harder for children to succeed in school.

Children's exposure to gun violence can also erode physical health. When children live in neighborhoods where gun violence is common, they spend less time playing and being physically active, with one study finding that children said they would engage in an additional hour of physical activity every week if safety increased in their neighborhood.

Stress related to gun violence affects student performance and well-being in schools. School-aged children have lower grades and more absences when they are exposed to violence. High school students who have been exposed to violence have lower test scores and lower rates of high school graduation. One study estimated that Black children in Chicago's most violent neighborhoods spend at least a week out of every month functioning at lower concentration levels due to local homicides. In Syracuse, NY, elementary schools located in areas with high concentrations of gunshots had 50 percent lower test scores and higher rates of standardized test failure compared to elementary schools in areas with a low concentration of gunshots.

Black high school students in the US are over twice as likely as white high school students to miss school due to safety concerns. In Chicago, following spikes in neighborhood violence, students reported feeling less safe, experiencing more disciplinary problems, and having less trust in teachers.

One essential way to protect our youth and prevent children's exposure to gun violence in their communities and schools is to prevent people with dangerous histories from ever getting a gun. Recommendations for comprehensive gun safety laws include:

Background checks on all gun sales

The foundation of any comprehensive gun violence prevention strategy must be background checks for all gun sales. Under current federal law, criminal background checks are required only for sales conducted by licensed dealers. This loophole is easy to exploit and makes it easy for convicted felons or domestic abusers to acquire guns without a background check simply by finding an unlicensed seller online or at a gun show.

Extreme Risk laws

These laws, increasingly being adopted by states, empower family members and law enforcement to petition a judge to temporarily block a person from having guns if they pose a danger to themselves or others. Extreme Risk laws -also known as Red Flag laws-can help prevent suicide, too. That is meaningful because nearly six out of every 10 gun deaths are suicides, and the suicide rate among children and teens has been increasing exponentially in the past 10 years.

Secure gun storage and child access prevention laws

Secure storage laws require people to store firearms responsibly to prevent unsupervised access to firearms. A subset of these laws, known as child access prevention laws, specifically target unsupervised access by minors. Secure firearm storage practices are associated with reductions in the risk of self-inflicted and unintentional firearm injuries among children and teens-up to 85 percent depending on the type of storage practice.

Keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers

Children are frequent casualties of domestic violence homicides when a gun is involved. Research also shows that the presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed. It is imperative to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers to keep women, children, and their families safe. When abusers are convicted of domestic violence or subject to final restraining orders, they should be blocked from purchasing guns and required to turn in those they already own. We also need to close the "boyfriend loophole" by making sure those laws apply to abusers regardless of whether the violence is directed towards a spouse or a dating partner.

In addition to evidence-based gun safety laws, there are a number of programs and strategies that communities and schools can adopt to keep children and teens safe from gun violence, some examples of which include:

Threat assessment programs

Threat assessment programs-like the Everytown and AFT-endorsed Comprehensive Student Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG)-help schools identify students who are at risk of committing violence and get them the help they need in order to resolve student threat incidents. The programs generally consist of multi-disciplinary teams that are specifically trained to intervene at the earliest warning signs of potential violence and divert those who would do harm to themselves or others to appropriate treatment. Several studies have found that schools that use threat assessment programs see fewer students carry out threats of violence; and experience fewer suspensions, expulsions, and arrests. Importantly, studies have shown that CSTAG threat assessment programs generally do not have a disproportionate impact on students of color.

Safe and equitable schools

School communities must look inside their schools to make sure they are encouraging effective partnerships between students and adults, while also looking externally to ensure that they are a key community resource. Schools should review discipline practices and ensure threat assessment programs are not adversely affecting school discipline. They should work to become "community schools" by building effective community partnerships that provide services that support students, families, and neighborhoods. If and when employing school resource officers (SROs), schools should take steps to build relationships between communities and law enforcement.

Youth-centric intervention programs

A variety of programs exist to help children cope with witnessing firearm violence. School-based programs, including social emotional learning, have been shown to reduce the negative effects of children's exposure to gun violence. Mentoring programs are effective at improving academic performance and reducing youth violence. Chicago's Safe Passage program makes children feel safer on their way to and from school and may increase school attendance. To learn more about two specific organizations that help children succeed after witnessing violence, please explore these resources about the Hip Hop Heals and Becoming A Man programs.
If you or someone you know has been exposed to gun violence, there are resources that can help. Everytown's Children's Responses to Trauma provides information for parents and adults about how to support children and teens who have experienced a shooting or are upset by images of gun violence. Additional information to help with the emotional, medical, financial, and legal consequences of gun violence for individuals and communities is on our Resources page.
Everytown Research & Policy is a program of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to understanding and reducing gun violence. Everytown Research & Policy works to do so by conducting methodologically rigorous research, supporting evidence-based policies, and communicating this knowledge to the American public.

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The Impact of Gun Violence on Children and Teens

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Children's exposure to gun violence has far reaching effects: An estimated three million children witness a shooting each year.