Guns are the leading cause of death of kids and teens, and state laws matter

N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson holds a weapon fastener astatine an arena astir safe retention of firearms. North Carolina is among 30 states pinch nan astir permissive weapon laws, according to a caller study. Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

States pinch permissive weapon laws knowledgeable a emergence successful pediatric deaths from firearm injuries betwixt 2011 and 2023, whereas states pinch stricter laws did not. That's according to a caller study published successful JAMA Pediatrics.

"We cognize that nan leading origin of decease successful children is firearm injuries," says Dr. Maya Haasz, an emergency medicine expert and interrogator astatine nan University of Colorado, who wasn't progressive successful nan caller study. In a argumentation little from 2021, she and her colleagues recovered that a kid aliases teen is killed successful nan U.S. every 2 hours and 48 minutes.

The caller study offers a model into ways to forestall these deaths, says Haasz, and she called that "exciting."

"This doesn't mean we should alteration each our laws astatine once," Haasz says, "but possibly if we could look astatine these laws and spot which ones are effective, past we could commencement moving towards safety."

A pivot constituent successful 2010

The researchers of nan caller study looked astatine firearm deaths of children 17 and nether successful nan play aft a 2010 landmark Supreme Court case — McDonald vs. Chicago — ruling that said authorities and section governments must comply pinch nan Second Amendment. Chicago's rule banning ownership of handguns was struck down, but cities and states could still modulate guns. That led to states crossed nan state changing their weapon laws, says study writer Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency medicine professor astatine Harvard Medical School and a expert astatine Mass General Brigham.

"There is conscionable this flurry of activity and it's successful some directions," says Faust. "You person states for illustration Alabama aliases Louisiana and Texas, that are enacting overmuch much fierce laws successful position of state of access, state of transportation laws astir concealed transportation successful churches, laws astir stand-your-ground, different things that make it conscionable easier to get a firearm quickly and to carry."

And states for illustration California passed stricter weapon regulations.

"Things for illustration information requirements, information training requirements," Faust says, "or wherever places instituted waiting periods aliases inheritance checks to make judge that they didn't person a convulsive criminal discourtesy successful their caller past."

Faust and his colleagues grouped states into 3 buckets based connected their weapon laws: astir permissive, permissive and slightest permissive.

Then they looked astatine nan wide pediatric firearm deaths successful nan 3 groups from 2011 to 2023 compared to nan decade prior. States pinch nan astir permissive weapon laws had much than 6,000 excess deaths than they would person expected based connected nan earlier clip period.

"We would person predicted 9,056 deaths successful 13 years, erstwhile successful fact, location were 15,085 deaths," says Faust. That's "a 67% comparative increase." The excess deaths included some homicides and suicides.

The states successful nan mediate group, pinch laws considered permissive, besides saw an summation successful deaths — they had 1,500 much deaths than expected.

Together, these 2 groups of states had much than 7,000 excess deaths of children and teens owed to guns. "And that's complete 500 deaths per year," notes Faust.

These are children "who should beryllium alive. They should beryllium around. These are not deaths that should person occurred. They are preventable."

The study "adds much robust evidence," supporting that states pinch much lenient weapon laws person much pediatric deaths from gunshots, says Dr. Chethan Sathya, a pediatric surgeon and head of nan Center for Gun Violence Prevention astatine Northwell Health successful New York. He wasn't progressive successful nan caller study.

Next steps

But states alteration wide successful nan kinds of weapon laws they person — whether they are strict aliases lenient, he adds. So, nan adjacent measurement for researchers is to look astatine which circumstantial laws tin really thief forestall weapon deaths successful kids and teens.

"We really person to inquire ourselves nan question: What really worked successful nan states that had little deaths?" says Sathya.

For example, past studies person shown that "child entree prevention laws" are effective successful preventing injuries and deaths, notes Haasz. These are laws  that opportunity "it is not ineligible for you to let a kid to entree a gun," she says. "And truthful that mightiness mean that you person to fastener up your weapon astatine home. That mightiness mean that you conscionable can't time off it connected nan table. And depending connected nan state, there's varying degrees of reward [for breaking nan law]."

"Those laws person been shown to alteration suicides and unintentional injuries successful children," she says.

That benignant of investigation into circumstantial laws would thief forestall not conscionable weapon deaths, notes Sathya, but besides nan larger number of non-fatal gunshot injuries successful this property group.

"In this study, for each fatality they captured, location are going to beryllium countless much kids successful those states that had non-fatal injuries and their lives are going to everlastingly beryllium altered," Sathya says.