Thread by @washingtonpost

In an epidemic unique to the United States, on average, at least one child is shot every hour of every day.

In 2020, the number exceeded 2,200 — by far the highest total in the past two decades — and 2021′s tally is expected to be worse. wapo.st/34E6cIV

Black kids are more than four times as likely to die in shootings as White ones, according to CDC data, though White kids are much more likely to use guns to take their own lives. wapo.st/34E6cIV

Last year, in Los Angeles, 11 were fatally shot. In Philadelphia: 36. In Chicago: 59.

Those figures don’t include the hundreds of other kids who died in accidental shootings and by suicide. wapo.st/34E6cIV

Often, children killed by bullets are memorialized only by brief news reports or anguished obituaries.

But the way they lived matters as much as the way they died. wapo.st/34E6cIV

The 13 children profiled here were funny: the 9-year-old who was a fearless “ball of energy”; the 6-year-old who wanted to be a doctor so she could give shots to all the doctors who had given her shots. wapo.st/34E6cIV

They were generous: the 12-year-old who used the money he made helping neighbors with chores to take his family out to McDonald’s. wapo.st/34E6cIV

And they were ambitious: the 15-year-old who played saxophone in the band, made A’s in most classes and wanted to be a nuclear physicist. wapo.st/34E6cIV

The country’s gun violence epidemic is
killing more children than ever.

These are their stories, one for each month of a violent year. wapo.st/34E6cIV