Louisiana has the country's worst gun death rate for children

By the numbers: Louisiana had the highest rate with 17 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the study. Nationally, the rate was 5.8.

• Mississippi (14.8), Alabama (11.4), Montana (11.1) and South Carolina (10.2) were other top states.
• Gun deaths in the South were more likely to be homicides, while suicides were more common in the Midwest, the researchers said.

Between the lines: In New Orleans, 119 people have been murdered so far this year, according to data from the New Orleans Police Department. Of those, 11 were younger than 18.

• Firearms are responsible for nearly 97% of the city's murders this year, NOPD says.

Zoom out: There were 4,752 pediatric firearm deaths nationally in 2021 — an 8.8% increase from the year before, the study found. Between 2018 and 2021, the pediatric firearm death rate rose 41.5%.

• "Spikes in firearm purchasing during the pandemic were substantial, resulting in roughly 30 million children living in households with firearms, a known risk factor for pediatric firearm injury," the researchers wrote.

Zoom in: Gun deaths among children nationally have "disproportionately affected communities of color," said the study, which is based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• Nearly 50% of children who died by firearms in 2021 were Black, and Black children "accounted for the greatest increase in death rate" from 2020 to 2021, per the study.

• "With respect to firearm homicides, in 2021, the death rate was 11 times higher for Black children compared with white children ... representing the largest disparity gap in the 4 years of this study."

The big picture: Nearly 85% of children who died from firearms in 2021 were male, and the firearm death rate among males has increased since 2018.

• About 83% of pediatric firearm deaths were among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years old, a 5.2% increase from the 2020 rate.

State of play: The new study aligns with earlier findings on the topic.

• A Pew Research Center report earlier this year found that gun deaths among U.S. kids rose 50% between 2019 and 2021.
• The number of children killed by guns in 2021 was higher than in any year since 1999, the first year the CDC began tracking the data, according to the report.