FACT CHECK: False Gavin Newsom ad about how 'kids' die running on X

(The Center Square) - California Gov. Gavin Newsom's super PAC "Campaign for Democracy" is running an ad on X, formerly known as Twitter, that reads, "Guns are the number one killer of kids. Not cancer. Not car accidents. GUNS."

The claim is false for most Americans.

It is true that firearms are the number one killer of kids according to Centers for Disease Control data if you include adult 18- and 19-year-olds as "kids" and exclude kids younger than 1, but even then for 82% of Americans it is false.

Gun are not the number one killer of whites or hispanics or Asians or Native Americans. Only for African-Americans is the number true, according to a May 2024 article in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" titled "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among US Youth." Newsom cites a "Pediatrics" article using 2011 through 2021 data for his claim.

The JAMA article reads, "By mechanism, the leading cause of death for Black youth was firearm injuries, whereas the leading cause of death for American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic, and White youth was MVCs ( Table ). Asian or Pacific Islander youth were most likely to die from MVC, ..." MVCs are motor vehicle crashes.

The false ad is part of an effort to raise Newsom's profile nationally and build support for a quixotic effort to amend the Constitution to allow greater gun control. Newsom's political office did not respond to multiple emails including a link to the JAMA article and seeking comment.