Routine violent deaths of children that the president feared may already be here
As he mourned with the families of Newtown, President Barack Obama said the nation cannot accept such violent deaths of children as routine. But hundreds of young child deaths by gunfire whether intentional or accidental suggest it might already have.
Between 2006 and 2010, 561 children age 12 and younger were killed by firearms, according to the FBI's most recent Uniform Crime Reports. The numbers each year are consistent: 120 in 2006; 115 in 2007; 116 in 2008, 114 in 2009 and 96 in 2010. The FBI's count does not include gun-related child deaths that authorities have ruled accidental.
"This happens on way too regular a basis and it affects families and communities not at once, so we don't see it and we don't understand it as part of our national experience," said Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
The true number of small children who died by gunfire in 2012 won't be known for a couple of years, when official reports are collected and dumped into a database and analyzed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to release its 2011 count in the spring.
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_22256403/routine-violent-deaths-children-that-president-feared-may-already-be-here#ixzz2G5LRxmPt