Almost 2,500 children killed by firearms in 2017, study finds

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By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A study from Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine found that in 2017, 2,462 school-aged children were killed by firearms in the United States. 

To put this number in perspective, during the same year, 144 police officers died in the line of duty. 

The researchers call the gun-related deaths of children an epidemic. They found that almost 40,000 people between the ages of 5 in 18 were killed from gunshots between 1999 and 2017. 

African-Americans accounted for 41 percent of overall deaths, and 86 percent of all deaths were among boys. 

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, deaths due to gunshot injuries are the third leading cause of injury-related death in the U.S.