Young people make up nearly a quarter of Kansas City metro’s fatal shootings this year

Nearly a quarter of fatal shooting victims this year in the Kansas City metro area have been 24 years old or younger. That comes as gun violence surpasses motor vehicles crashes as the leading cause of death of young people nationwide.

A new study from The New England Journal of Medicine found firearm injuries are now the most common cause of death for people ages 1 to 24 in the U.S. For 60 years, vehicular deaths were the leading cause, but since 2017, firearm deaths have been the top cause.

“The crossing of these trend lines demonstrates how a concerted approach to injury prevention can reduce injuries and deaths — and, conversely, how a public health problem can be exacerbated in the absence of such attention,” the authors of the study wrote.

“As the progress made in reducing deaths from motor vehicle crashes shows, we don’t have to accept the high rate of firearm-related deaths among U.S. children and adolescents.”

Rosilyn Temple, founder of KC Mothers in Charge, says it’s a tragedy that so many young people make up the area’s homicide victims.

“It’s horrible. It’s a community problem that we are allowing young people to get killed and not enough is getting done to change that,” Temple said. “We have to come together and make a change.”

A part of the problem, Temple said, is too many young people have access to guns.

Across the Kansas City metro area, 76 people have been killed. Of that total, 18 victims ages 24 and younger were shot and killed.

Most of the victims were in their early 20s and a handful were teenagers. The youngest victims were two 14-year-olds killed in February in Kansas City, Kansas. The most recent victim was Creighton Goddard, 20, who was shot and killed April 10 near Union Avenue and Mulberry Street in Kansas City.

This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 11:46 AM.