KANSAS CITY, Mo. (TNS) — To read David Mastio’s recent column about gun violence among America’s children, one would think this epidemic is nothing but a “lie” circulated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to the delight of gun violence prevention groups.

Indeed, he likens the CDC’s declaration of guns as the leading cause of death of American children to “snake oil” maliciously peddled by (checks notes) doctors and public health experts trying desperately to protect Americans from the impacts of a novel coronavirus which has, to date, killed more than 7 million people globally.

Not so fast, CDC, he insists. Its statistic is correct only “if you lump all the dead children and teens in one pile and count how they died.”

Well, Mr. Mastio, let me assure you: That is what American mothers do every single day. And to these mothers — of which I am one — an 18-year-old is still a mother’s child. So is a 16-year-old. And a 13-year-old. Every mother’s heart breaks when any child dies because of a gun, whether by homicide or suicide or accident. Whether in a mass shooting or a drive by shooting. Whether because of gang violence or domestic violence. And making your point by insisting 18- and 19-year-olds aren’t actually children isn’t the slam dunk argument you think it is.

Here is where Mr. Mastio’s piece reveals a disturbing bias: He asks whether guns are really a threat to “your” — the reader’s — kids. “Probably not,” he declares. Why, you may ask, are guns not a threat to “your” children, dear reader? Because this statistic is true only for one demographic group: Black teens.

Let’s stop here to make one thing extremely clear. On behalf of myself, my organization, Lives on the Line KC, my fellow mothers, Kansas Citians, Missourians and Americans: Every child is our child. A single child dead from gun violence is one child too many.

Mr. Mastio further warns against “slicing and dicing” statistics to achieve our goals, despite the fact he is the one engaging in such behavior. But, for the sake of relying on the truth — which he insists we must do — let’s look at some facts:

• Annually, more than 4,300 children and teens (ages 0 to 19) are shot and killed, and more than 17,000 are shot and wounded.
• Compared to other high-income countries, U.S. children age 5 to 14 are 21 times more likely to be killed with guns.
• Thirty percent of child and teen gun death is because of suicide
• In 2023 and 2024 alone, there were 679 school shootings in America.

Mr. Mastio ends his column by wondering — let’s assume in good faith — why the CDC and gun violence prevention groups would engage in such obvious “slicing and dicing.” Could it be to raise campaign donations by scaring parents? I’ll answer this one: Parents were terrified long before the CDC made its official declaration.

Alternatively, is it “to get Congress to fork over millions in research grants on the problem of gun violence”? This one is also easy to answer. Since the passage of the Dickey Amendment in 1997, Congress has been completely prohibited from granting the CDC any federal funds to study gun violence. It was not until 2020 under the Biden administration that just $25 million was finally appropriated for the CDC and NIH to research reducing gun-related deaths and injuries. And we can all imagine where those funds have gone under the current pro-gun, anti-science administration.

Allow me to suggest an alternative reason for emphasizing this morbid statistic: The CDC and gun violence prevention groups alike are desperately trying to make progress in the face of near-insurmountable forces to curb the “daily bloodbath” Mr. Mastio himself acknowledges is happening.

Let me close with this: Neither The Star, nor my fellow Kansas Citians should tolerate this type of rhetoric. Rather, we should all come together and insist that our community, state and country do better to protect our children from gun violence. I also suggest Mr. Mastio take his own brand of snake oil somewhere else.

(Jessie Bustamante is an attorney in Kansas City. She is co-founder of Lives on the Line, a nonprofit organization of mothers dedicated to finding bipartisan solutions to gun violence.)