from Pediatrics: Firearm-Related Injuries affecting the pediatric population

• From the American Academy of Pediatrics

Policy Statement

Firearm-Related Injuries Affecting the Pediatric Population

1. COUNCIL ON INJURY, VIOLENCE, AND POISON PREVENTION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The absence of guns from children’s homes and communities is the most reliable and effective measure to prevent firearm-related injuries in children and adolescents. Adolescent suicide risk is strongly associated with firearm availability. Safe gun storage (guns unloaded and locked, ammunition locked separately) reduces children’s risk of injury. Physician counseling of parents about firearm safety appears to be effective, but firearm safety education programs directed at children are ineffective. The American Academy of Pediatrics continues to support a number of specific measures to reduce the destructive effects of guns in the lives of children and adolescents, including the regulation of the manufacture, sale, purchase, ownership, and use of firearms; a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons; and the strongest possible regulations of handguns for civilian use. ...



Of all injury deaths of individuals 15 through 19 years of age in the United States in 2009, more than 1 (28.7%) in 4 were firearm related, and of those younger than 20 years, nearly 1 (19.5%) in 5 were firearm related.¹ These firearm deaths result from homicide, suicide, and unintentional injury (Fig 2). Black Americans are particularly affected; injuries from firearms were the leading cause of death among black males 15 through 34 years of age in 2009.² Although national data cannot fully document urban and rural differences in the patterns of injuries from firearms that involve children, local data indicate that children in rural areas as well as in urban areas are at risk for firearm-related mortality.^3–5

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The United States has the highest rates of firearm-related deaths (including homicide, suicide, and unintentional deaths) among high-income countries.⁹ For youth 15 to 24 years of age, firearm homicide rates, as documented by Richardson and Hemenway,⁹ were 35.7 times higher than in other countries. For children 5 to 14 years of age, firearm suicide rates were 8 times higher, and death rates from unintentional firearm injuries were 10 times higher in the United States than other high-income countries. The difference in rates may be related to the ease of availability of guns in the United States compared with other high-income countries. This is particularly true for suicides, as guns carry a high case-fatality rate.¹⁰ Suicides among the young are typically impulsive,¹¹ and easy access to lethal weapons largely determines outcome.

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