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You say this like the conclusion I’m supposed to draw is that it doesn’t matter that they died from firearms.

I think the conclusion is that the group definition matters: a group of people age 1-19 is different than 2 groups. 1-17 and 18-19.

If you use 1-19, firearms are the leading cause of death, if you use 1-17 they are not. In almost every other context we consider 18-19 adults.

this looks like something peculiar happens when you age up to 18.

suddenly adult privledges, and expectations are now part of your life, and if you can make it past year one adulthood, this window is passed

That age range would probably make KIA the leading cause of death for “children” during the Vietnam war.

Sure, but we’re not in the middle Of a large scale land wars at the moment.