The number of gun deaths in the United States has been increasing for years. More than 4,300 children died from gun violence in 2020. In Alaska, a 15-year-old is said to have shot three of his siblings and then himself. The background to the fact is so far unclear.
A 15-year-old is said to have shot three of his siblings and then himself in the US state of Alaska. Police said officers were called to a home in Fairbanks on Tuesday after shots were fired there. They found the bodies of four minors on site. Three other children in the house were unharmed.
All seven children are siblings, local media quoted a police spokesman as saying. The parents were not there at the time of the crime. Initial investigations revealed that the 15-year-old killed his three siblings and then himself. The background is still unclear. The victims were 5, 8 and 17 years old, it said. The US has long struggled with massive levels of gun violence. Firearms are often readily available in the country.
Firearm incidents have surpassed traffic accidents as the leading cause of death in the United States for young people aged 19 and under, according to a recently released calculation of data from the US health protection agency CDC. More than 4,300 children and young people died from guns in 2020, researchers from the University of Michigan reported in the “New England Journal of Medicine”. Nearly 20,000 people were shot to death across the country in 2020, according to the CDC — more than 50 a day.
US President Biden has long been calling for a far-reaching tightening of American gun laws. A corresponding reform has been blocked by large sections of the Republicans and some Democrats for years. After a recent increase in deadly gun attacks, including in schools, a cross-party panel of US senators has now agreed on a draft law to minimally tighten gun laws. According to this, arms dealers should have to check the suitability of carrying a weapon more thoroughly for customers under the age of 21.
