WASHINGTON, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Firearms have surpassed motor vehicles as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the United States, according to new federal data analyzed by researchers at the University of Michigan (UM).

The researchers co-authored an article recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine, which quantifies the leading causes of death nationwide for individuals ages 1 to 19.

Based on their analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, firearm-related deaths in that age group increased by 29 percent from 2019 to 2020.

More than 4,300 individuals ages 1 to 19 across the United States died as a result of firearms in 2020, which includes suicides, homicides, and unintentional deaths.

Motor vehicles caused about 3,900 fatalities among children and adolescents in 2020, while drug poisoning deaths increased by more than 83 percent -- to more than 1,700 total deaths -- to become the third-leading cause of death in this group.

More than 45,000 people across the United States died as a result of firearms in 2020, regardless of age -- a more than 13 percent increase in comparison with 2019.

This change was driven largely by firearm homicides, which saw a 33.4 percent increase in the crude rate from 2019 to 2020, whereas the crude rate of firearm suicides increased by 1.1 percent, according to the study.

"Firearm violence is one of the most critical challenges facing our society, and based on the latest federal data, this crisis is growing more and more intense," said Rebecca Cunningham, UM vice president for research and the William G. Barsan Collegiate Professor of Emergency Medicine.

More than 23,000 people, including roughly 1,650 children and teens, have died or been injured due to gun-related incidents in the United States this year, according to a database run by the nonprofit research group Gun Violence Archive. Enditem

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