People mourn with candles for victims of a mass shooting in front of the city hall of Monterey Park, California, the United States, on Jan. 23, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

Guns have become the No. 1 killer of children and teens under 18 in the United States, British newspaper The Guardian has reported.

The report, published Thursday, cited data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was analyzed by University of Michigan researchers.

Young people in the United States have little formal power to do anything about gun violence, it said, adding that decisions about how governments legislate guns and how communities and schools respond to shootings are primarily left to lawmakers, voters and law enforcement officials.

"Politicians should be more involved in the community," the report quoted Greg Novelo, a 20-year-old resident of Richmond, California, as saying. "There's no progress to show that they're helping the community... they need activities, programs, parks you can go to that are safe," Novelo said.

Meanwhile, the report pointed out that law enforcement is not always the solution to gun violence in the United States. In some regions, "police are a questionable solution to the problem of gun violence," it said.

Many students in South Los Angeles and the Bay Area described seeing police use force in their communities, which are disproportionately harmed by gun violence, rather than helping people find solutions to young people being involved in gangs and gun violence, the report said.

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