One in four US children exposed to weapon violence, study finds

More than 17.5 million children in the United States, or about one in four, have been exposed to weapon violence, either as a witness or as a victim, and about two million, or one in 33, have been exposed to violence involving a highly lethal weapon, such as a gun or knife, a new study has found.

These figures, the researchers wrote, indicated that “weapons based violence is one of the largest public health crises affecting children in the United States, far exceeding the numbers of children with illnesses such as diabetes or cancer.”1

The study was published online on 8 June in the …