NPR

Gun violence is killing more children. The pandemic may be playing a role

Chicago was shaken by the shooting death of 8-year-old Melissa Ortega last Saturday. Nationally, the number of children shot has jumped during the pandemic.
Karla Chavez, of the social activist group Chiactivists, puts up a sign at a memorial for 8-year-old Melissa Ortega in Chicago on Jan, 24. Ortega was walking with her mother in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood on Jan. 22 when she was struck by stray bullets after an unknown offender shot multiple times in their direction.

During the past week, the country has seen a grim death toll of children under the age of 12, killed with guns.

Grayson Matthew Fleming-Gray, 6 months old, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Atlanta on Monday.

That same day, , 10, was allegedly killed by her father in Somerville, Ohio, in what the local sheriff describes as a

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