Study: Gun deaths of minors in Brazil average 1 an hour

Sao Paulo — A person 19 or under dies every 60 minutes due to firearms in Brazil, according to a study by the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics released Wednesday by state news service Agencia Brasil.

In 2016 alone, the last year in which the Ministry of Health has data on the matter, 9,517 accidental and intentional shooting deaths were recorded in the age group, the report said.

The figure sets a new record for Brazil, doubling the 4,846 cases reported in 1997.

Between 1997 and 2016, the number of young people 19 or under who were killed by firearms totaled some 145,000.

Brazil is considered one of the most violent countries in the world with an average of 60,000 homicides per year, of which around 70 percent are committed with firearms.

The country’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, signed a decree in January that facilitates civilians’ purchase of weapons under the pretext of guaranteeing citizens the right to self-defense.

The initiative was criticized by the opposition and various civil society organizations, who argued that the greater the number of weapons in circulation, the greater the violence and the more victims will result.

According to the report by the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics, every two hours a child or teenager enters a public hospital with gunshot wounds, accounting for almost 96,000 hospitalizations between 1999 and 2018.

Providing treatment to all those gunshot victims resulted in government expenditures of 210 million reais ($55.5 million).

In some cases, deaths and injuries result from stray bullets fired in clashes between security forces and criminal suspects.

A total of 54 children have been killed in Rio de Janeiro by stray bullets since 2007, the anti-violence group Rio de Paz said on Wednesday during an event honoring 13-year-old Maria Eduarda Alves, killed during a police operation in 2017.

Antonio Carlos Costa, the president and founder of the group, told EFE that Maria Eduarda’s case “could have been a tragedy of great proportions because it took place inside a school where the children had to throw themselves on the floor to avoid the bullets fired by the police.”

The pediatricians’ report indicates that most of the youth deaths from firearms were the result of homicide (94 percent), distantly followed by suicide (2 percent), accidents (1 percent) and other undetermined causes (4 percent).

A week ago, Brazil experienced one of the worst school massacres in its history.

Two former students, ages 17 and 25, entered Raul Brasil high school in Suzano, 60km (37mi) from Sao Paulo city, and opened fire, killing eight people before taking their own lives.