Since Sandy Hook, American Child Has Died by Gun Every Other Day

Since the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School three years ago, at least 554 American children under the age of 12 have died from gunshots, both intentional and accidental, NBC News reported. 

That figure, based on news reports and other publicly available information, is likely significantly lower than the true number of child gun deaths, as suicides often are not covered by news media and other gun deaths sometimes go unreported. Even so, it works out to a rate of just under one death of a child by firearm every two days in this country.

That's not an improvement from the rate before Sandy Hook — when Adam Lanza stormed into the school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012, and shot dead 20 children and six staff members—  according to an NBC News analysis. One new government dataset suggests that the risk of children dying by gunfire may even have increased slightly since then.

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