CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND RELEASES
ANNUAL GUN VIOLENCE REPORT

More Children and Teens Lost to Gun Violence in America
Than Servicemen Killed in Combat in Afghanistan and Iraq

As the nation's mayors discuss solutions to gun violence at their annual conference, the Children's Defense Fund today released Protect Children, Not Guns 2007, its new annual report that details how each and every day we continue to lose children and teens to gun violence in America.

"Gun violence affects everyone in America and is a major health problem," said Marian Wright Edelman, CDF President. "Each and every day in America we continue to lose far too many children and teens to gun violence in towns, cities and rural areas all across the country. What is it going to take for us to stop the killing of our youth and the proliferation of guns, which leave every single American at risk?"

According to the CDF report, which uses the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2004 alone the gun death toll for children and teens in the United States was 2,825, more than the total number of American service men and women who died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan since those wars began though December 2006.

Gun violence exacted a high toll on America's children and teens in 2004:

• 58 preschoolers were killed by firearms, while 57 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty.
• 60 percent of the children and teens killed were White; 37 percent were Black.
• Girls are not immune to gun violence. The number of girls killed by firearms rose from 325 in 2003 to 387 in 2004—a 19 percent increase.
• Firearm deaths of children and teens went up more than 10 percent in seven states—Michigan, Colorado, Tennessee, Arizona, New Jersey, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

"There must be a movement to end gun violence in our country and stop the proliferation of guns," said Edelman. "Let us build on the current initiative of more than 120 U.S. mayors who have called for national leadership to wage war on the gun violence that snuffs out so many lives in America."

A full copy of the report can be found at: www.childrensdefense.org/gunreport.