What Are Adverse Childhood Experiences?

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Gun violence has an impact on those who see it or hear it.

The traumatic nature of exposure to gun violence affects the health and development of young people.

Gun violence exposure occurs disproportionately in low-income households in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

In 2024, someone died from gun violence every 12 minutes in the United States. Gun suicides reached an all-time high, and guns remained the leading cause of death among young people (ages 1-17), with more deaths than car crashes, overdoses, or any other single cause (Kim et al., 2026).

The tragic lethality of gun violence is something that we hear or read about every day. We think less often or not at all about the more invisible but pervasive and damaging ways community violence affects those who see it happening or hear the sounds of gunfire.

The most common form of gun exposure is hearing shots in a public space, and this can create significant distress for younger children, even when the level of threat is not especially serious (Turner et al., 2019). Witnessing community violence consistently is associated with increased odds of gun carrying, substance use, and suicide risk for both males and females (Harper et al., 2023).

Exposure to gun violence is traumatic. Many researchers and clinicians, myself among them, have advocated for its inclusion in ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) screenings. The chronic stress that arises from living in neighborhoods with high rates of gun violence triggers repeated activation of the stress response system, as other traumatic experiences do. Constant arousal of the neurobiological alarm system leads to both short- and long-term physiological and psychological consequences.

Exposure to community violence has been linked to a range of problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress, substance use, and academic difficulties in the short term, and hypertension in adulthood (Bancalari et al., 2022).

Having a gun pointed at you or being shot is different from seeing gun violence or hearing shots fired. It makes sense that the mental health symptoms that develop in response to indirect exposure to........

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